Nuclear safeguards applications require accurate fission models that exhibit prompt neutron anisotropy. In the laboratory reference frame, an anisotropic neutron angular distribution is observed because prompt fission neutrons carry momentum from fully accelerated fission fragments. A liquid organic scintillation detector array was used with pulse shape discrimination techniques to produce neutron-neutron cross-correlation time distributions and angular distributions from spontaneous fission in a 252 Cf, a 0.84 g 240 Pu eff metal, and a 1.63 g 240 Pu eff metal sample. The effect of cross-talk, estimated with MCNPX-PoliMi simulations, is removed from neutron-neutron coincidences as a function of the angle between detector pairs. Fewer coincidences were observed at detector angles near 90 degrees, relative to higher and lower detector angles. As light output threshold increases, the observed anisotropy increases due to spectral effects arising from fission fragment momentum transfer to emitted neutrons. Stronger anisotropy was observed in Cf-252 spontaneous fission prompt neutrons than in Pu-240 neutrons.

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We developed a fast-neutron multiplicity counter based on organic scintillators (EJ-309 liquid and stilbene). The system detects correlated photon and neutron multiplets emitted by fission reactions, within a gate time of tens of nanoseconds. The system was used at Idaho National Laboratory to assay a variety of plutonium metal plates. A coincidence counting strategy was used to quantify the 240 Pu effective mass of the samples. Coincident neutrons, detected within a 40-ns coincidence window, show a monotonic trend, increasing with the 240 Pu-effective mass (in this work, we tested the 0.005-0.5 kg range). After calibration, the system estimated the 240 Pu effective mass of an unknown sample (240 Pu eff >50 g) with an uncertainty lower than 1% in a 4-minute assay time.

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