English

A Scintillator Purification Plant and Fluid Handling System for SNO+

Instrumentation and Detectors 2019-08-14 v1 Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

A large capacity purification plant and fluid handling system has been constructed for the SNO+ neutrino and double-beta decay experiment, located 6800 feet underground at SNOLAB, Canada. SNO+ is a refurbishment of the SNO detector to fill the acrylic vessel with liquid scintillator based on Linear Alkylbenzene (LAB) and 2 g/L PPO, and also has a phase to load natural tellurium into the scintillator for a double-beta decay experiment with 130Te. The plant includes processes multi-stage dual-stream distillation, column water extraction, steam stripping, and functionalized silica gel adsorption columns. The plant also includes systems for preparing the scintillator with PPO and metal-loading the scintillator for double-beta decay exposure. We review the basis of design, the purification principles, specifications for the plant, and the construction and installations. The construction and commissioning status is updated.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1506.08746,
  title  = {A Scintillator Purification Plant and Fluid Handling System for SNO+},
  author = {Richard J. Ford},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.08746},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

7 pages, 5 figures