Alpha Backgrounds in the SNO $^3$He Proportional Counter Array*

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) has recently deployed an array of proportional counters known as Neutral Current Detectors (NCDs) to detect thermalized neutrons via the $^3$He(n,p)$^3$H reaction. The primary physics background to the neutron-capture signal is alpha particle emission from uranium- and thorium-chain decays in the NCD walls. The expected capture rate of neutrons from the neutral-current neutrino reaction on deuterium is three per day and the intrinsic alpha background rate is approximately 250 alphas per day. Fewer than 10\% of these alphas fall into the energy range where neutron-capture signals occur, and a substantial number of these can be eliminated by pulse-shape analysis. This talk will focus on measurements of the alpha backgrounds in the NCDs and the extent to which these alphas contaminate the neutron-capture signal region.