SANDD: A directional antineutrino detector with segmented 6Li-doped pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillatorWe present a characterization of a small (9-liter) and mobile 0.1% 6Li-doped
pulse-shape-sensitive plastic scintillator antineutrino detector called SANDD
(Segmented AntiNeutrino Directional Detector), constructed for the purpose of
near-field reactor monitoring with sensitivity to antineutrino direction. SANDD
comprises three different types of module. A detailed Monte Carlo simulation
code was developed to match and validate the performance of each of the three
modules. The combined model was then used to produce a prediction of the
performance of the entire detector. Analysis cuts were established to isolate
antineutrino inverse beta decay events while rejecting large fraction of
backgrounds. The neutron and positron detection efficiencies are estimated to
be 34.8% and 80.2%, respectively, while the coincidence detection efficiency is
estimated to be 71.7%, resulting in inverse beta decay detection efficiency of
20.05 +/- 0.2%(stat.) +/- 2.1%(syst.). The predicted directional sensitivity of
SANDD produces an uncertainty of 20 degree in the azimuthal direction per 100
detected antineutrino events.
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