In this section
Nile
NILE is the latest facility at ISIS for neutron irradiation. It provides well-characterised mono-energetic neutron beams, including 2.5 MeV and 14 MeV neutrons from DD and DT generators, housed within a shielded bunker in the Target Station 2 building. NILE supports irradiation experiments for testing of electronics. A variety of other applications include elemental analysis, detector testing, fusion materials.
Instrument scientists
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Technical information
The facility incorporates two small-scale compact neutron sources. Using two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, these neutron sources use two well-known nuclear fusion reactions to generate fast-neutrons fields at 14MeV (with a total yield of 1010 neutrons per second) and 2.5MeV (with a total yield of 109 neutrons per second).
The facility proves a large flexible space to allow irradiation experiments, with numerous cable links to a bespoke experimental office right next to the shielded bunker. Nile allows ISIS to extend its current irradiation capabilities by providing the ability to test setups and develop new test methodologies prior to using the main ChipIr beamline.
Alongside this role, Nile can provide the ability to carry out generic fast-neutron irradiations in a variety of academic and industrial applications, such as the development of fast-neutron detectors and fusion applications. Nile can also provide specific user training in irradiation and detection techniques as part of a university or industrial course.
Recent publications
Instrument reference
All publications and datasets based on experiments using Nile should cite that the data is collected by DOI: 10.5286/isis.instrument.3391. Experiment DOIs follow the format 10.5286/ISIS.E.RBXXXXXXX, where XXXXXXX is the 7-digit experiment (RB) number and these can be viewed via the Data Gateway.