A report on lithium, sodium, and liquid neutron sources

The objectives in producing neutron sources are to produce uniform products of as high efficiencies as possible from the neutron yielding elements and to do this in the safest manner. The purpose of the present work was to improve the methods of preparing sources and at the same time increase the types of sources available. Lithium, sodium, and their compounds were chosen because the neutron fluxes and energies are low, thus making the experimental work less hazardous to the operator. Also, the elements are quite reactive, so that techniques which are successful with them can be easily adapted to other materials. Solvents for polonium, ways of mixing polonium and target, neutron yields, reproducibility, decay of the sources, means of recovering polonium, and materials for containers, were investigated