ASTRA (Adaptierter Schwimmbecken-Typ-Reaktor Austria, English translation: Adapted swimming pool-type reactor Austria) was a type of nuclear research reactor built in Seibersdorf, Austria near Vienna, at the site of the former Austrian Reactor Center Seibersdorf which now forms part of the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT).
[1] In this experiment, the electron-neutrino angular correlation in free neutron decay was measured via the shape of the energy spectrum of the recoil protons; the center of a highly evacuated tangential beam tube of the reactor served as neutron source.
The aim was to determine the ratio of the two coupling constants gA and gV of the weak interaction from the shape of the recoil proton spectrum.
This spectrum was measured using an electrostatic spectrometer; the protons were counted using an ion electron converter of the coincidence type.
This is in good agreement with the later (much more accurate) average[3] gA/gV = - 1.2695 ± 0.0029; this value was measured using polarised neutrons and hence contains also the sign of the ratio.