Cross sections of the Zr 91 (n,α) Sr 88 reaction in the 3.9-5.3 MeV neutron energy region

AbstraktAbstract

Cross sections of the 91Zr(n, α) 88Sr reaction were measured at four incident neutron energies in the range of 3.9 to 5.3 MeV. The experiment was carried out on the Van de Graaff accelerator EG-5 at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Russia. Fast neutrons were produced via the 2 H(d, n) 3He reaction with a deuterium gas target. A twin gridded ionization chamber (GIC) was used as the charged particle detector, in which 91Zr back-to-back samples on a tantalum backing were placed at the common cathode. The relative and absolute neutron fluxes were measured using two 238U3 O8 samples inside the GIC. Cross-section data obtained in this measurement were compared with those in existing data library and from theoretical calculations using TALYS code. The present data for the 91Zr(n, α) 88Sr reaction should be helpful in clarifying the discrepancies in various published nuclear evaluation data. An alpha clustering factor is calculatedusing the statistical model and knock-on mechanism.

Cross sections of the 91Zr(n, α) 88Sr reaction were measured at four incident neutron energies in the range of 3.9 to 5.3 MeV. The experiment was carried out on the Van de Graaff accelerator EG-5 at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Russia. Fast neutrons were produced via the 2 H(d, n) 3He reaction with a deuterium gas target. A twin gridded ionization chamber (GIC) was used as the charged particle detector, in which 91Zr back-to-back samples on a tantalum backing were placed at the common cathode. The relative and absolute neutron fluxes were measured using two 238U3 O8 samples inside the GIC. Cross-section data obtained in this measurement were compared with those in existing data library and from theoretical calculations using TALYS code. The present data for the 91Zr(n, α) 88Sr reaction should be helpful in clarifying the discrepancies in various published nuclear evaluation data. An alpha clustering factor is calculatedusing the statistical model and knock-on mechanism.