Tritium transport in the NuMI decay pipe region - modeling and comparison with experimental data

[摘要] The NuMI (Neutrinos at Main Injector) beam facility at Fermilab is designed to produce an intense beam of muon neutrinos to be sent to the MINOS underground experiment in Soudan, Minnesota. Neutrinos are created by the decay of heavier particles. In the case of NuMI, the decaying particles are created by interaction of high-energy protons in a target, creating mostly positive pions. These particles can also interact with their environment, resulting in production of a variety of short-lived radionuclides and tritium. In the NuMI beam, neutrinos are produced by 120 GeV protons from the Fermilab Main Injector accelerator which are injected into the NuMI beam line using single turn extraction. The beam line has been designed for 400 kW beam power, roughly a factor of 2 above the initial (2005-06) running conditions. Extracted protons are bent downwards at a 57mr angle towards the Soudan Laboratory. The meson production target is a 94 cm segmented graphite rod, cooled by water in stainless tubes on the top and bottom of the target. The target is followed by two magnetic horns which are pulsed to 200 kA in synchronization with the passage of the beam, producing focusing of the secondary hadron beam and its daughter neutrinos. Downstream of the second horn the meson beam is transported for 675 m in an evacuated 2 m diameter beam (''decay'') pipe. Subsequently, the residual mesons and protons are absorbed in a water cooled aluminum/steel absorber immediately downstream of the decay pipe. Some 200 m of rock further downstream ranges out all of the residual muons. During beam operations, after installation of the chiller condensate system in December 2005, the concentration of tritiated water in the MINOS sump flow of 177 gpm was around 12 pCi/ml, for a total of 0.010 pCi/day. A simple model of tritium transport and deposition via humidity has been constructed to aid in understanding how tritium reaches the sump water. The model deals with tritium transported as HTO, water in which one hydrogen atom has been replaced with tritium. Based on concepts supported by the modeling, a dehumidification system was installed during May 2006 that reduced the tritium level in the sump by a factor of two. This note is primarily concerned with tritium that was produced in the NuMI target pile, carried by air flow into the target hall and down the decay pipe passageway (where most of it was deposited). The air is exhausted through the existing air vent shaft EAV2 (Figure 1).

[发布日期] 2007-03-01

[学科分类] 核物理和高能物理

[关键词] ACCELERATORS;AIR FLOW;CONDENSATES;DECAY;GRAPHITE;HADRONS;HYDROGEN;MESON BEAMS;MUON NEUTRINOS;RADIOISOTOPES;SYNCHRONIZATION;TRANSPORT;TRITIUM;TRITIUM OXIDES Accelerators