Neil Roberts

Neil graduated from Birmingham University with an M.Sc. in Applied Radiation Physics. Since then he has pursued a career at NPL and has 20 years of experience in the field of neutron metrology. primarily focussed on the measurement and use of radionuclide neutron sources. This includes the manganese bath facility used to calibrate the neutron emission rate of sources for which he is the manager. He has piloted and evaluated an international key comparison of neutron emission rate measurements and played a leading role in the design and commissioning of the new manganese bath facility at NPL.

Other notable work has involved measuring the photon spectra in standard neutron fields and characterising a neutron generator for use at JET. He represents the UK in section III of the CCRI, is a member of EURADOS Working Group 6 on Computational Dosimetry and has authored 32 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

Areas of interest

• Neutron source characterisation: emission rate, energy spectra, anisotropy
• Neutron spectrometry: Field measurements using Bonner spheres at therapy facilities and nuclear sites, proton recoil proportional counters and organic scintillators, unfolding techniques
• Monoenergetic neutrons: production and characterisation of accelerator-based neutron fields, participation in international comparisons, foil activation
• Thermal neutrons: using the NPL thermal pile, gold foil measurements
• Monte Carlo modelling: area survey instruments, long counters, radionuclide neutron sources, manganese bath
• Digital electronics: Bonner spheres, long counters, Cerenkov-gamma coincidence counting for the manganese bath
• Programming: writing software for data acquisition and analysis using LabVIEW and VB.NET