Charged particles produced in neutron reactions on nuclei from beryllium to gold

Charged-particle production in reactions of neutrons with nuclei has been studied over the past several years with the spallation source of neutrons from 1 to 50 MeV at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). Target nuclides include 9Be, C, 27Al, Si, 56Fe, 59Co, 58,60Ni, 93Nb and 197Au. Proton, deuteron, triton, 3He and 4He emission spectra, angular distributions and production cross sections have been measured. Transitions from the compound nuclear reaction mechanism to precompound reactions are clearly seen in the data. The data are compared with data from the literature where available, with evaluated nuclear data libraries, and with calculations where the selection of the nuclear level density prescription is of great importance. Calculations normalized at En = 14 MeV can differ from the present data by a factor of 2 for neutron energies between 5 and 10 MeV

Nuclear-data needs for inertial-confinement fusion (ICF)

Our survey was limited to ICF programs in the United States. It included researchers in laser and heavy ion fusion, target design, target diagnostics, and conceptual reactor design. We asked each of these people to read the current data needs for magnetic fusion energy and to comment on additional data that they require

Status report to DOE Nuclear Data Committee

This status report from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory covers work in the areas of nuclear data applications - measurements, nuclear data application - calculations, nuclear data for reactor safety, fission physics, and data evaluation and compilation. Separate abstracts were prepared for seven of the contributions to this report. 7 figures, 3 tables. (RWR

Experimental studies of (n, charged particle) cross sections, angular distributions and spectra with a magnetic quadrupole spectrometer

The charged-particle-producing reactions of 15-MeV neutrons with structural materials have been studied with a new type of spectrometer based around a magnetic quadrupole lens. Significant improvements in signal-to-background have permitted the detection of protons with energies as low as 800 keV. In several materials charged particles emitted with energies well below the Coulomb barrier contribute significantly to the total hydrogen and helium production cross sections. The production mechanism for these low-energy particles is second-chance emission in (n,n'p) and (n,n'..cap alpha..) reactions. At the high-energy end of the proton and alpha-particle spectra and for the entire deuteron spectra, non-statistical reaction mechanisms are indicated. Results for Al, Ti, V, Fe, Ni, Cu, Nb, and stainless steel 316 are compared with data from other experimental methods

The 14C(n,g) cross section between 10 keV and 1 MeV

The neutron capture cross section of 14C is of relevance for several nucleosynthesis scenarios such as inhomogeneous Big Bang models, neutron induced CNO cycles, and neutrino driven wind models for the r process. The 14C(n,g) reaction is also important for the validation of the Coulomb dissociation method, where the (n,g) cross section can be indirectly obtained via the time-reversed process. So far, the example of 14C is the only case with neutrons where both, direct measurement and indirect Coulomb dissociation, have been applied. Unfortunately, the interpretation is obscured by discrepancies between several experiments and theory. Therefore, we report on new direct measurements of the 14C(n,g) reaction with neutron energies ranging from 20 to 800 keV

Testing T Invariance in the Interaction of Slow Neutrons with Aligned Nuclei

The study of five-fold (P even, T odd) correlation in the interaction of slow polarized neutrons with aligned nuclei is a possible way of testing the time reversal invariance due to the expected enhancement of T violating effects in compound resonances. Possible nuclear targets are discussed which can be aligned both dynamically as well as by the "brute force" method at low temperature. A statistical estimation is performed of the five-fold correlation for low lying p wave compound resonances of the $^{121}$Sb, $^{123}$Sb and $^{127}$I nuclei. It is shown that a significant improvement can be achieved for the bound on the intensity of the fundamental parity conserving time violating (PCTV) interaction.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, published versio

Low-mass fission detector for the fission neutron spectrum measurement

For the fission neutron spectrum measurement, the neutron energy is determined in a time-of-flight experiment by the time difference between the fission event and detection of the neutron. Therefore, the neutron energy resolution is directly determined by the time resolution of both neutron and fission detectors. For the fission detection, the detector needs not only a good timing response but also the tolerance of radiation damage and high {alpha}-decay rate. A parallel-plate avalanche counter (PPAC) has many advantages for the detection of heavy charged particles such as fission fragments. These include fast timing, resistance to radiation damage, and tolerance of high counting rate. A PPAC also can be tuned to be insensitive to particles, which is important for experiments with - emitting actinides. Therefore, a PPAC is an ideal detector for experiments requiring a fast and clean trigger for fission. In the following sections, the description will be given for the design and performance of a new low-mass PPAC for the fission-neutron spectrum measurements at LANL