• Energy Research

The (n,γ ) cross section of 96Zr has been investigated at the CERN n TOF spallation neutron source. Highresolution time-of-flight measurements using an enriched ZrO2 sample allowed us to analyze 15 resonances below 40 keV with improved accuracy. On average, the capture widths were found to be 25% smaller than reported in earlier experiments. If complemented with the contribution by direct radiative capture, the derived Maxwellian averaged cross sections are consistent with activation data at kT = 25 keV. The present results confirm the astrophysical implications for the s-process branching at 95Zr.

The experimental setup GRAPhEME (GeRmanium array for Actinides PrEcise MEasurements) has been used at GELINA (EC-JRC, Geel, Belgium) to perform (n,xn γ) cross sections measurements. GRAPhEME has been especially designed to take into account the specific difficulties generated by the use of actinides samples. This work takes place in the context of new nuclear data measurements for nuclear reactor applications. Considering the very tight accuracy requested for new experimental data, special care has been paid to quantify as accurately as possible all the uncertainties from the instruments and the analysis procedure. From the precise (n,xn γ) cross sections produced with GRAPhEME, the use of model calculations is required to obtain (n,xn) cross sections. Beyond the measurements, extensive work on theoretical models is necessary to achieve a better evaluation of the (n,xn) processes. In this paper, we will discuss the final step of the 238U data analysis and present some recent results obtained on 232Th compared to TALYS modellings. A new measurement campaign on 233U has started recently, a first assessment of the recorded data will be presented.

Inelastic (n,n') cross section is a key quantity to accurately simulate reactor cores, and its precision was shown to need significant improvements. To bypass the experimental difficulties to detect neutrons from (n,xn) reaction and to discriminate inelastically scattered neutrons from those following the fission process in case of fissile targets, an indirect but yet powerful method is used: the prompt γ-ray spectroscopy. Along this line, our collaboration has developed the GRAPhEME setup, optimized for actinides, at the GELINA facility to measure partial (n,xn γ) cross sections, from which the total (n,xn) cross section can be inferred. (n,xn γ) experiments with actinides are still particularly challenging, as their structure presents a high level density at low energy, and the competing neutron-induced fission reaction contaminates the γ-energy distribution. New precise measurements of the partial (n,xn γ) cross sections provide a stringent test to theoretical model and offer a way to improve them. This is a path to a better determination of the total inelastic scattering cross sections. In this contribution we discuss modeling aspects of the 238U and 182W (n,n' γ) reactions, also measured with GRAPhEME, using the three codes TALYS, EMPIRE and CoH. We will highlight the needed/expected improvements on reaction modeling and nuclear structure input.

The neutron-induced fission cross-section of 233U has been measured at the CERN n TOF facility relative to the standard fission cross-section of 235U between 0.5 and 20MeV. The experiment was performed with a fast ionization chamber for the detection of the fission fragments and to discriminate against α-particles from the natural radioactivity of the samples. The high instantaneous flux and the low background of the n TOF facility result in data with uncertainties of ≈ 3%, which were found in good agreement with previous experiments. The high quality of the present results allows to improve the evaluation of the 233U(n,f) cross-section and, consequently, the design of energy systems based on the Th/U cycle.

The neutron-induced fission cross section of 245Cm was measured at n_TOF in a wide energy range and with high resolution. The energy dependence, measured in a single measurement from 30 meV to 1 MeV neutron energy, has been determined with 5% accuracy relative to the 235U(n,f) cross section. In order to reduce the uncertainty on the absolute value, the data have been normalized at thermal energy to recent measurements performed at ILL and BR1. In the energy range of overlap, the results are in fair agreement with some previous measurements and confirm, on average, the evaluated cross section in the ENDF/B-VII.0 database, although sizable differences are observed for some important resonances below 20 eV. A similar behavior is observed relative to JENDL/AC-2008, a reactor-oriented database for actinides. The new results contribute to the overall improvement of the databases needed for the design of advanced reactor systems and may lead to refinements of fission models for the actinides.