Cross-section measurements of neutron threshold reactions in various materials

As members of international collaboration “Energy and Transmutation of radioactive Waste” we routinely use (n,xn) threshold reactions in various materials to measure high energy neutron flux from spallation reactions. The cross–sections of many reactions important for our activation detectors are missing. To improve situation, we studied the neutron cross-sections using different quasi-monoenergetic neutron sources based on proton reaction on 7Li target. The measurements were performed in Nuclear Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Řež near Prague and in The Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala (Sweden). We used neutron energies 17, 22, 30 and 35 MeV from the quasi-monoenergetic neutron source in Řež and neutron energies 22, 47 and 94 MeV in Uppsala. The last experiment was carried out in February 2010 in Uppsala using neutron energies 59, 66, 72 and 89 MeV. The study of neutron threshold reactions in yttrium was performed first time during this irradiation. We have developed procedure for the subtraction of contribution of the background neutrons. We studied various materials in the form of thin foils and observed good agreement with the data in EXFOR database and also with the calculations performed in deterministic code TALYS. Many cross-sections were measured in the energy regions where no experimental data are available so far.