Radioactivity control strategy for the JUNO detector

Abstract

JUNO is a massive liquid scintillator detector with a primary scientific goal of determining the neutrino mass ordering by studying the oscillated anti-neutrino flux coming from two nuclear power plants at 53 km distance. The expected signal anti-neutrino interaction rate is only 60 counts per day, therefore a careful control of the background sources due to radioactivity is critical. In particular, natural radioactivity present in all materials and in the environment represents a serious issue that could impair the sensitivity of the experiment if appropriate countermeasures were not foreseen. In this paper we discuss the background reduction strategies undertaken by the JUNO collaboration to reduce at minimum the impact of natural radioactivity. We describe our efforts for an optimized experimental design, a careful material screening and accurate detector production handling, and a constant control of the expected results through a meticulous Monte Carlo simulation program. We show that all these actions should allow us to keep the background count rate safely below the target value of 10 Hz in the default fiducial volume, above an energy threshold of 0.7 MeV.

arXiv comment35 pages, 12 figures

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Sub-percent Precision Measurement of Neutrino Oscillation Parameters with JUNO
• Potential to identify neutrino mass ordering with reactor antineutrinos at JUNO
• Prediction of Energy Resolution in the JUNO Experiment
• Simulation Software of the JUNO Experiment
• Model Independent Approach of the JUNO ${}^8$B Solar Neutrino Program
• Design of the PMT underwater cascade implosion protection system for JUNO
• Ultra-Low Background Germanium Assay at the Boulby Underground Laboratory
• Study on U/Th residual radioactivity in acrylic from surface treatment
• Measurement of high-pressure xenon gas absorption in acrylic
• Neutron source-based event reconstruction algorithm in large liquid scintillator detectors
• Design and Experimental Application of a Radon Diffusion Chamber for Determining Diffusion Coefficients in Membrane Materials