Advanced Neutron Counting Electronics Designed and Implemented on the JCC-71 Neutron Coincidence Collar to Replace Standard JAB-01 Preamplifier/Amplifier/Discriminator Boards

New in-house neutron counting electronics were designed and built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to replace the Canberra Industries JAB-01 preamplifier/amplifier/discriminator boards on their JCC-71 Neutron Coincidence Collar model system. The new electronics include a preamplifier and motherboard design, which fit inside the footprint of the existing junction box, as well as an external “ORNL Neutron Collar Processor” board. The goal of the new electronics is to provide the same neutron processing functionalities as the JAB-01 boards and extend the capabilities of the JCC-71 system by placing a preamplifier on each of the 18 3He tubes to facilitate neutron list mode data acquisition. Each 3He tube is then capable of producing an individual signal output to be analyzed using a list mode data acquisition system such as the PTR-32 or N2000. List mode data analysis provides the opportunity to use all 18 signal channels to produce a spatial response matrix to assay fresh nuclear fuel assemblies. This paper describes the development of the new electronics and provides performance comparison measurements between the two electronics board systems using list mode data acquisition.