4 ms·

Would it be possible to create a nuclear power plant detector by trying to detect neutrinos?

• rubidium 11y ago
  Possible, yes. Practical, not really. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamioka_Liquid_Scintillator_Antineutrino_Detector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamioka_Liquid_Scintillator_An... Edit: Ok, let me not be so brief. In short, the current detectors for monitoring reactors are either HUGE (rooms and rooms full of highly purified water, and even those just look at nearby reactors and only get 1 count every 3 days). Or the detectors are very close to the reactor (7 meters i.e. https://www.iaea.org/safeguards/symposium/2010/Documents/PapersRepository/027.pdf https://www.iaea.org/safeguards/symposium/2010/Documents/Pap...). So signal to noise is the main issue first of all.
• fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
  Yes, in principle, absolutely. It wouldn't be practical though. The detectors are large, and sensitive to every kind of noise and interference, and you need to collect data, not just take a mere single reading. But, funny story, during commissioning the Chinese officials in charge of the nuclear plant were very conservative about what information they wanted to share with the experiment regarding the plant's operational status, I got to see them with some funny looks on their faces when the physicists told them, and showed them plots of exactly what was going on in the reactors and when.
• saboot 11y ago
  Yes, this is being done and researched now. https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201404/neutrinos.cfm https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/201404/neutrinos.cf... http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21651165-it-may-be-possible-detect-plutonium-factories-distance-watcher http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/2165116... http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.01132v1.pdf http://arxiv.org/pdf/1502.01132v1.pdf