Towards an improved evaluation of neutron-induced fission cross sections on actinides

Journal Article · Tue Mar 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.83.034601· OSTI ID:21499495

Goriely, S ^[1]; Hilaire, S ^[2]; Koning, A J ^[3]; Capote, R ^[4]

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1. Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, CP-226, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, BE-1050 Brussels (Belgium)
2. CEA, DAM, DIF, F-91297 Arpajon (France)
3. Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, P.O. Box 25, NL-1755 ZG Petten (Netherlands)
4. International Atomic Energy Agency, NAPC-Nuclear Data Section, AT-1400 Vienna (Austria)

Mean-field calculations can now provide all the nuclear ingredients required to describe the fission path from the equilibrium deformation up to the nuclear scission point. The information obtained from microscopic mean-field models has been included in the TALYS reaction code to improve the predictions of neutron-induced fission cross sections. The nuclear inputs concern not only the details of the energy surface along the fission path, but also the coherent estimate of the nuclear level density derived within the combinatorial approach on the basis of the same single-particle properties, in particular at the fission saddle points. The predictive power of such a microscopic approach is tested on the experimental data available for the uranium isotopic chain. It is also shown that the various inputs can be tuned to reproduce, at best, experimental data in one unique coherent framework, so that in a close future it should become possible to make, on the basis of such models, accurate fission-cross-section calculations and the corresponding estimates for nuclei, energy ranges, or reaction channels for which no data exist. Such model uncertainties are usually not taken into account in data evaluations.

• OSTI ID: 21499495
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.83.034601; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CROSS SECTIONS
ENERGY RANGE
ENERGY-LEVEL DENSITY
EQUILIBRIUM
EVALUATION
FISSION
FORECASTING
MEAN-FIELD THEORY
NEUTRONS
NUCLEAR DEFORMATION
NUCLEI
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
SURFACES
URANIUM
ACTINIDES
BARYONS
DEFORMATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
FERMIONS
HADRONS
METALS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEONS
SIMULATION