ORNL Neutron Cross Section Measurements of 90Zr
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- European Commission, Geel (Belgium). Joint Research Centre (JRC)
Nuclear criticality modeling and simulations rely on the quality of the existing evaluated nuclear data libraries such as Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF)/B, the Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) nuclear data library, or the Japanese Evaluated Nuclear Data Library (JENDL). In some cases, the cross-section evaluations of those libraries were found to be deficient in describing criticality benchmarks accurately. More than two decades ago, the US Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP) established a Nuclear Data (ND) task which encompassed experiments and evaluations. In response to this, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) formed a Nuclear Criticality and Data group which performed ND experiments, data analysis, and evaluations to produce ENDF files for the ND libraries as identified in the NCSP Five-Year Plan. Before being submitted to the ENDF library, files were processed and tested for performance by running benchmark calculations. This procedure was centralized in the ORNL group and is now often referred to as the ND pipeline. NCSP collaborates with the Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission in Geel, Belgium, to perform high-resolution neutron-induced cross section measurements at the Geel Linear Accelerator (GELINA). The objective is to address emerging ND problems in criticality calculations. Difficulties with ND include insufficient neutron energy range, missing covariances, and previously unrecognized inaccuracies with experiments. New neutron total and capture cross sections of 90Zr in the neutron energy range from 100 eV to several hundred keV were recently performed. These measured data will be used, together with existing high-resolution transmission data from a metallic 90Zr sample, to improve representation of the cross sections.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP); European Commission, Geel (Belgium). Joint Research Centre (JRC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1923056
- Journal Information:
- Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 127; ISSN 0003-018X
- Publisher:
- American Nuclear Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Measurement of (n, γ) cross section of 90Zr [Abstract]