Measurement of the ²⁴¹Am neutron capture cross section at the n_TOF facility at CERN

¹ Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Spain
² Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
³ CEA Saclay, Irfu, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁴ University of Lodz, Poland
⁵ Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS-IN2P3, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91406 Orsay Cedex, France
⁶ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Italy
⁷ Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
⁸ University of Manchester, UK
⁹ University of Zagreb, Croatia
¹⁰ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland
¹¹ Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
¹² Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
¹³ Universidad de Sevilla, Spain
¹⁴ National Technical University of Athens, Greece
¹⁵ Technische Universität München, Garching, Germany
¹⁶ University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
¹⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Legnaro, Italy
¹⁸ Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
¹⁹ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia
²⁰ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India
²¹ Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Universidad de Valencia, Spain
²² Institute of Physics and Power Engineering (IPPE), Obninsk, Russia
²³ Technische Universität Wien, Austria
²⁴ Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villingen, Switzerland
²⁵ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Geel, Retieseweg 111, 2440 Geel, Belgium
²⁶ University of York, UK
²⁷ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North, IKP, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
²⁸ Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
²⁹ Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA
³⁰ University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria
³¹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Italy
³² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Italy
³³ Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
³⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Italy
³⁵ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Romania
³⁶ Department of Physics, University of Basel, Switzerland
³⁷ Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

^a e-mail: emilio.mendoza@ciemat.es

Published online: 13 September 2017

Abstract

New neutron cross section measurements of minor actinides have been performed recently in order to reduce the uncertainties in the evaluated data, which is important for the design of advanced nuclear reactors and, in particular, for determining their performance in the transmutation of nuclear waste. We have measured the ²⁴¹Am(n,γ) cross section at the n_TOF facility between 0.2 eV and 10 keV with a BaF₂ Total Absorption Calorimeter, and the analysis of the measurement has been recently concluded. Our results are in reasonable agreement below 20 eV with the ones published by C. Lampoudis et al. in 2013, who reported a 22% larger capture cross section up to 110 eV compared to experimental and evaluated data published before. Our results also indicate that the ²⁴¹Am(n,γ) cross section is underestimated in the present evaluated libraries between 20 eV and 2 keV by 25%, on average, and up to 35% for certain evaluations and energy ranges.