Lab Impex - Part of the TenBee Consortium

A feasibility study funded by the UK Technology Strategy Board’s collaborative R&D programme in the area of Energy generation and Supply

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The well publicised global shortage of 3He has enforced a search for alternative neutron detector technologies across industries spanning nuclear power generation, oil & gas exploration, homeland security, medical imaging and Physics research.

Technology solution - 10B detector clusters

Clustered 10B-lined proportional counters are gaining credibility as an alternative detector in the security sector and show potential for use in fuel cycle facilities. Key attributes include a sensitivity of >70% compared to a 3atm 3He tube.

System solution – Project TenBee

The TenBee collaboration has been formed using funding from the UK Technology Strategy Board’s recent Nuclear R&D feasibility studies competition. The aim of the collaboration is to understand the potential for using 10B-lined detector clusters to meet the need of the UK civil nuclear industry for neutron assay applications envisaging a future without 3He.
The project runs for one year from November 2010 and will deliver a demonstrator unit for evaluation and the feasibility report. A key element to ensure that the work is relevant to the real needs of the UK nuclear industry is to ensure that we capture the requirements and views of as many industry participants as possible.
The project Proposal:

This project will investigate the feasibility of high sensitivity Boron-10 (10B) lined neutron detectors for use in the civil nuclear industry providing customers with a highly cost effective alternative to Helium-3 (3He) based sensors...
 
Project TenBee will identify the customer requirements that will shape the development of this innovative 10B-based sensor solution and will design and construct a laboratory demonstrator of the sensor. With comprehensive customer engagement, supported by demonstrator results, the project will deliver an exploitation plan for future research and design in the field of 10B-based neutron detection for the civil nuclear industry...