  We present a method for detecting neutrons using scintillating lithium
gadolinium borate crystal shards in a plastic matrix while maintaining high
gamma rejection. We have procured two cylindrical detectors, 5"\times5",
containing 1% crystal by mass. Crystal shards have a typical dimension of 1 mm.
One detector was made with scintillating plastic, and one with nonscintillating
plastic. Pulse shape analysis was used to reject gamma ray backgrounds. The
scintillating detector was measured to have an intrinsic fast fission neutron
efficiency of 0.4% and a gamma sensitivity of less than 2.3 \times 10-9, while
the nonscintillating detector had a neutron efficiency of 0.7% and gamma
sensitivity of (4.75\pm3.94)\times10-9. We determine that increasing the
neutron detection efficiency by a factor of 2 will make the detector
competitive with moderated 3He tubes, and we discuss several simple and
straightforward methods for obtaining or surpassing such an improvement. We end
with a discussion of possible applications, both for the scintillating-plastic
and nonscintillating-plastic detectors.
