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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)

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 σγt 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
Resource Relation:
Conference: 15. International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology (ND2022), Held Virtually, 21-29 Jul 2023; Related Information: https://indico.frib.msu.edu/event/52/overview
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (5)

Neutron capture cross section of Zr 90 : Bottleneck in the s -process reaction flow journal March 2008
The Zr 92 ( n , γ ) reaction and its implications for stellar nucleosynthesis journal May 2010
Neutron Radiative Capture and Transmission Measurements of W and Zr Isotopes in the keV Region journal July 1969
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