ARTIFICIAL SOURCES OF ELECTRON ANTINEUTRINOS ON THE BASIS OF SR-90

Two versions of electron-antineutrino sources are considered. The firs t represents a large setup formed by standard radionuclide heat source s (RHS) which are manufactured industrially for self-sufficient electr ic thermocouple stations. The assembly of 3000 RHSs (of power about 1 kW each) makes it possible to obtain an antineutrino-flux density of a bout 2.2 x 10(13) cm(-1) s(-1) at a distance of 2 m from the assembly center. The second version is a source of a much lower intensity to be used as an outer source for large underground detectors. The possible background at the detector area is estimated, and the possibilities o f purifying Sr-90 are discussed.