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Design of a new BNCT facility based on an ESQ accelerator
The authors plan to build a BNCT facility based on electrostatic quadrupole (ESQ) accelerator technology. It is an experimentally-proven technology capable of delivering a high proton current for producing a neutron intensity greater than what is required for BNCT clinical trials. They also present a design of a lithium neutron-production target with adequate cooling of the heat generated by the high-current proton beam
Report on 240Am(n,x) surrogate cross section test measurement
The main goal of the test measurement was to determine the feasibility of the {sup 243}Am(p,t) reaction as a surrogate for {sup 240}Am(n,f). No data cross section data exists for neutron induced reactions on {sup 240}Am; the half-life of this isotope is only 2.1 days making direct measurements difficult, if not impossible. The 48-hour experiment was conducted using the STARS/LIBERACE experimental facility located at the 88 Inch Cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in August 2011. A description of the experiment and results is given. The beam energy was initially chosen to be 39 MeV in order to measure an equivalent neutron energy range from 0 to 20 MeV. However, the proton beam was not stopped in the farady cup and the beam was deposited in the surrounding shielding material. The shielding material was not conductive, and a beam current, needed for proper tuning of the beam as well as experimental monitoring, could not be read. If the {sup 240}Am(n,f) surrogate experiment is to be run at LBNL, simple modifications to the beam collection site will need to be made. The beam energy was reduced to 29 MeV, which was within an energy regime of prior experiments and tuning conditions at STARS/LIBERACE. At this energy, the beam current was successfully tuned and measured. At 29 MeV, data was collected with both the {sup 243}Am and {sup 238}U targets. An example particle identification plot is shown in Fig. 1. The triton-fission coincidence rate for the {sup 243}Am target and {sup 238}U target were measured. Coincidence rates of 0.0233(1) cps and 0.150(6) cps were observed for the {sup 243}Am and {sup 238}U targets, respectively. The difference in count rate is largely attributed to the available target material - the {sup 238}U target contains approximately 7 times more atoms than the {sup 243}Am. A proton beam current of {approx}0.7 nA was used for measurements on both targets. Assuming a full experimental run under similar conditions, an estimate for the run time needed was made. Figure 2 shows the number of days needed as a function of acceptable uncertainty for a measurement of 1-20 MeV equivalent neutron energy, binned into 200 keV increments. A 5% measurement will take 3 days for U, but 20 days for Am. It may be difficult to be the sole user of the LBNL cyclotron, or another facility, for such an extended period. However, a 10% measurement will take 19 hours for U, and 5 days for Am. Such a run period is more reasonable and will allow for the first ever measurement of the {sup 240}Am(n,f) cross section. We also anticipate 40% more beam time being available at Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute compared to LBNL in FY2012. The increased amount of beam time will allow us to accumulate better statistics then what would have been available at LBNL
Level densities and thermodynamical properties of Pt and Au isotopes
The nuclear level densities of Pt and Au below the
neutron separation energy have been measured using transfer and scattering
reactions. All the level density distributions follow the constant-temperature
description. Each group of isotopes is characterized by the same temperature
above the energy threshold corresponding to the breaking of the first Cooper
pair. A constant entropy excess and is observed in
Pt and Au with respect to Pt and Au,
respectively, giving information on the available single-particle level space
for the last unpaired valence neutron. The breaking of nucleon Cooper pairs is
revealed by sequential peaks in the microcanonical caloric curve
Enhanced low-energy -decay strength of Ni and its robustness within the shell model
Neutron-capture reactions on very neutron-rich nuclei are essential for
heavy-element nucleosynthesis through the rapid neutron-capture process, now
shown to take place in neutron-star merger events. For these exotic nuclei,
radiative neutron capture is extremely sensitive to their -emission
probability at very low energies. In this work, we present
measurements of the -decay strength of Ni over the wide range
MeV. A significant enhancement is found in the
-decay strength for transitions with MeV. At present,
this is the most neutron-rich nucleus displaying this feature, proving that
this phenomenon is not restricted to stable nuclei. We have performed
-strength calculations within the quasiparticle time-blocking
approximation, which describe our data above MeV very well.
Moreover, large-scale shell-model calculations indicate an nature of the
low-energy strength. This turns out to be remarkably robust with
respect to the choice of interaction, truncation and model space, and we
predict its presence in the whole isotopic chain, in particular the
neutron-rich .Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure
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