Variations in the Background Flux of Thermal Neutrons at Kamchatka

Variations in the natural thermal neutron flux are measured at the n -Kamchatka installation in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky during May 2019, using electron-neutron detectors designed at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Nuclear Research. Because of its high level of seismic activity, the South Kamchatka subduction zone was chosen as the location of yet another installation belonging to the global network of this type of arrays under different geological and geophysical conditions. The aim of the n -Kamchatka installation is to study correlations between the dynamics of the natural thermal neutron flux and seismic activity. Results are presented from of the first 1.5 years of the installation’s operation.