The Innovations and Intellectual Property Department of JINR announces that on 15 September 2023, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research received a patent for the invention “Cold neutron storage ring”. The authors of the work are Yuri Nikitenko and Viktor Aksenov from the Laboratory of Neutron Physics at JINR.

JINR staff congratulates the authors on receiving the patent for their invention!

More details about the invention

The invention can be used for neutron accumulation in a closed volume. The storage tank has a top, side, and bottom walls. The hot moderator 2 is located near the neutron source, is made of beryllium or beryllium oxide, and generates epithermal neutrons. The cold moderator is located near the accumulator at the liquid nitrogen temperature or lower, the shutter 7 covers the side wall 9 of the annular accumulator and is made in the form of a cylindrical surface of neutron-reflecting material with a window. The input window of the drive 8 and the window in the gate have the same size in the horizontal direction, equal to the product of half of the neutron pulse duration in the cold moderator, the circumference length of the drive and the shutter speed. As a result, the neutron density increases and the neutron residence time in the drive increases.