Undergraduate education at the University of Kentucky accelerator laboratory

Ramirez, A. D.; Alemayehu, B.; Lowrie, J.; Hicks, S. F.; Vanhoy, J. R.; McEllistrem, M. T.; Mukhopadhyay, S.; Peters, E. E.; Yates, S. W.

doi:10.1063/1.5127714

Title: Undergraduate education at the University of Kentucky accelerator laboratory

Journal Article · Wed Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5127714· OSTI ID:1806296

Ramirez, A. D. ^[1]; Alemayehu, B. ^[2]; Lowrie, J. ^[2]; Hicks, S. F. ^[2]; Vanhoy, J. R. ^[3]; McEllistrem, M. T. ^[1]; Mukhopadhyay, S. ^[1]; Peters, E. E. ^[1]; Yates, S. W. ^[1]

Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)
Univ. of Dallas, Irving, TX (United States)
United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD (United States)

The University of Kentucky accelerator laboratory provides undergraduate students an opportunity to experience scientific research in nuclear physics. They are introduced to our research program, which focuses on the examination of basic nuclear properties using the 7 MV CN Van de Graaff accelerator and the time-of-flight facility to perform inelastic neutron scattering measurements with g-ray and neutron detection. Furthermore, students are given a series of projects to support the measurements including experimental equipment setup, kinematic calculations, data collection, experimental diagnostics, MCNP simulations, analysis code development, and preliminary analysis of the data. Undergraduate physics majors from the University of Dallas took part in (n,n'g) measurements for LiF. Neutron scattering cross sections for these nuclei, which are of significant interest in coolant designs for molten salt reactors, were determined for incident neutron energies between 0.8 and 4.5 MeV. By measuring the g-ray production cross sections and feeding contributions from higher-lying levels, students extracted the neutron level cross sections for Li and F. Additional (n,n'g) measurements for Li metal will be performed in the near future to supplement the g-ray data.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0002931; PHY-1606890

OSTI ID:: 1806296

Journal Information:: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 2160, Issue 1; Conference: 25. International Conference on the Application of Accelerators in Research and Industry, Grapevine, TX (United States); ISSN 0094-243X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (8)

Gamma-Ray Production Cross Sections in Multiple Channels for Neutron-Induced Reaction on ⁴⁸ Ti for E _n = 1 to 200 MeV Dashdorj, D.; Mitchell, G. E.; Becker, J. A. Nuclear Science and Engineering, Vol. 157, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2713	journal	September 2007
Neutron scattering cross section measurements for ${}^{56}{Fe}$ Ramirez, A. P. D.; Vanhoy, J. R.; Hicks, S. F. Physical Review C, Vol. 95, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.95.064605	journal	June 2017
Cross-section measurements for the ${}^{56}{Fe}$ ( $n$ , $x n γ$ ) reactions Negret, A.; Borcea, C.; Dessagne, Ph. Physical Review C, Vol. 90, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.90.034602	journal	September 2014
Inelastic neutron scattering in ${}^{19}F$ Rogers, V. C. Physical Review C, Vol. 9, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.9.527	journal	February 1974
Neutron scattering differential cross sections for 23Na from 1.5 to 4.5 MeV Vanhoy, J. R.; Hicks, S. F.; Chakraborty, A. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 939 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2015.03.006	journal	July 2015
54Fe neutron elastic and inelastic scattering differential cross sections from 2–6 MeV Vanhoy, J. R.; Liu, S. H.; Hicks, S. F. Nuclear Physics A, Vol. 972 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2018.02.004	journal	April 2018
Inelastic Neutron Scattering in $F^{19}$ Freeman, Joan M. Physical Review, Vol. 99, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.99.1446	journal	September 1955
Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) Bhat, M. R. Nuclear Data for Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58113-7_227	book	January 1992

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