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.
Highlights
Isotopes of 241Am and 237Np are the minor actinides which contribute most to the long term hazard of the nuclear waste
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
Other three 241Am(n,γ ) measurements have been performed recently: one at n TOF using the same sample but C6D6 detectors instead of the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) [3] (Fraval et al.); other at IRMM – Geel [5] (Lampoudis et al.) using a three times thicker sample, manufactured in the same laboratory and at the same time as the one used in this work; and the last one performed at DANCE [4] (Jandel et al.), in Los Alamos Neutron Science Center
Summary
Isotopes of 241Am and 237Np are the minor actinides which contribute most to the long term hazard of the nuclear waste. The reprocessing of Am is technologically more advanced than for other minor actinides. For all these reasons the improvement of the 241Am(n,γ ) data was a major effort of the EC-FP7 ANDES project, and four different measurements were planned and carried out. Two of them were capture measurements performed at n TOF [1], with the same sample but different detectors: the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) [2] and C6D6 detectors [3]. The other two were a transmission and a capture measurement performed at IRMM – Geel [5], with a different sample.
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