Determination of burnup effects in 197Au(n,γ)198Au prior to reactor neutron field characterisation

Abstract

A simple and accurate method is presented to evaluate the burnup effects involved in the neutron activation of 197Au prior to any neutron flux characterisation, based on the spectrometry of the 198Au and 199Au decay gammas. The obtained burnup factor can be used as input for reactor neutron field characterisation techniques using 197Au(n,γ)198Au as a monitor. This way an iterative procedure is avoided.