Zirconium Nuclear Data Campaign: Measurement of 90Zr (n, γ) cross section

Conference · 01 May 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202328401011· OSTI ID:1985396

Brown, Jesse ^[1]; Guber, Klaus H. ^[1]; Paradela, Carlos ^[2]; Schillebeeckx, Peter ^[2]; Kopecky, Stefan ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. European Commission Joint Research Centre

The isotopes of Zr with A = [90, 91, 92, 94] make up more than 97% of naturally occurring Zr and are important to many nuclear applications such as nuclear reactors. One of the attractive qualities of naturally occurring Zr isotopes is that they have a low σγ/σt ratio at most neutron energies. Thus, they improve the neutron economy in reactors by preferentially scattering neutrons rather than absorbing them. This same quality also presents a challenge to measuring the capture cross section, σγ, of Zr isotopes. The ENDF/B-VIII.0 library has a relative uncertainty of approximately 10–20% for incident neutron energies < 0.1 MeV and an uncertainty greater than 20% for energies > 0.1 MeV for the majority of natural Zr isotopes. This motivated the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program to embark on a campaign to accurately measure and evaluate these Zr isotopes. In this work, we demonstrate energy-dependent neutron capture cross section measurements for the first enriched sample to be measured: 90Zr.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1985396
• Resource Relation: Journal Volume: 284; Conference: 15th International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (ND2022) - Livermore (VIRTUAL), California, United States of America - 7/21/2022 8:00:00 AM-7/29/2022 8:00:00 AM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English