Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Zirconium Nuclear Data Campaign: Measurement of 90Zr (n, γ) Cross Section

Conference ·
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [2]
  1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  2. Nuclear Physics Unit, Geel (Belgium)
+ Show Author Affiliations
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); Nuclear Physics Unit, Geel (Belgium)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1994541
Report Number(s):
185459
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (5)

The Zr 92 ( n , γ ) reaction and its implications for stellar nucleosynthesis journal May 2010
Neutron capture cross section of Zr 90 : Bottleneck in the s -process reaction flow journal March 2008
Neutron Resonance Parameters of 90Zr below 300 KeV journal January 1977
Neutron Total Cross Sections of Even Isotopes of Zr in the Energy Range 2-60 keV journal January 1968
Neutron Radiative Capture and Transmission Measurements of W and Zr Isotopes in the keV Region journal July 1969

Similar Records

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
90-Zirconium
Energy-Dependent Neutron Capture Cross Section Measurements
Isotopes
Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP)
Reactors Neutron Economy