GPPU Seminar

Date

16:00—18:00, March 18, 2026

Place

(hybrid) Room 745, Science Complex B (H-03), Zoom registration map

Abstract

The elusive nature of neutrinos makes them attractive as a potential safeguards tool for reactor monitoring in support of nonproliferation. A typical power reactor emits on the order of billions of billions of neutrinos per second, carrying about 5% of the energy generated in the core. While this energy is unusable for electricity production, the associated neutrino flux and spectrum can provide information about reactor operational status, fuel burnup, and fissile content. The same weakly interacting nature that makes neutrinos tamper resistant also makes them difficult to detect. In this talk, I will review several application‑specific neutrino detector concepts I have been working on at LLNL. In particular, I will focus on detectors based on novel lithium‑6‑loaded pulse‑shape‑discriminating plastic scintillators and gadolinium‑loaded media, as well as advanced photosensors, including silicon photomultiplier arrays and large‑area picosecond photodetectors. I will also describe a new method to reconstruct antineutrino direction in segmented inverse‑beta‑decay detectors.

Point

GSP 1