Accelerator sources

  • These sources are nuclear reactions to provide fast neutrons.  One of the simplest of this type of source is the bombardment of heavy ice or heavy paraffin with a deuteron beam of several hundred keV.

    2H + d ® 3He + n   Q = +3.28 keV
  •  They require an accelerator to produce a beam of energetic particles to initiate the reaction and thus are more expensive and less convenient than the radioactive decay type of source.