SUMMARY
Neutron detector technology has not progressed significantly in many years. Several new designs for neu8tron detection have recently been proposed at Georgia Tech. These detectors are designed to be a near term replacement for He-3 tubes and game changing spectroscopic neutron scintillators. These novel detectors such as ultra-fast ZnO doped scintillators, doped ZnO photonic crystal scintillators, liquid scintillators loaded with novel nanoparticles, and GaN/ZnO semiconductor devices will be developed, constructed, and tested. Digital as well as analog pulse processing techniques will be used. Neutron spectra will be unfolded using a new radiation spectral unfolding code that is currently being designed for these new systems. This code will be designed around current unfolding codes as well as implementing several new features included automated iteration control and Bayesian parameter estimation. These detectors will be tested and calibrated in several reference radiation fields. Spectroscopic neutron measurements will be made with traditional proton recoil liquid scintillators. The newly developed detectors will be compared to the traditional detectors. This effort will be used in support of a sub 1% uncertainty fission cross section measurement program. Novel detectors are needed to measure time and energy dependent fission neutron yields as well as characterize the background radiation fields around the measurement location. These novel detectors could be faster, brighter, higher efficiencies and higher resolution than current neutron detectors. These detectors could also provide a near term solution to the national need of a replacement for large He-3 neutron detectors.