Measurements and estimation of cross sections of neutron and bremsstrahlung induced nuclear reactions for neodymium isotopes with covariance analysis

Abstract

The cross sections of the nuclear reactions 142Nd(n,2n)141Nd, 148Nd(n,2n)147Nd, 150Nd(n,2n)149Nd, 142Nd(n,2n)141mNd and 146Nd(n,p)146Pr at 14.77 MeV neutron energy and the cross section of the 142Nd(γ,n)141Nd, 148Nd(γ,n)147Nd and 150Nd(γ,n)149Nd nuclear reaction at 10 and 15 MeV bremsstrahlung endpoint energies were measured using offline gamma spectroscopy. The photon-induced cross sections are reported for the first time at 10 MeV and 15 MeV bremsstrahlung endpoint energies. The uncertainties in the measured data were calculated using covariance analysis. The experimental results were compared with the previously reported EXFOR data and with the evaluated nuclear data libraries ENDF/B.-VIII.0, JEFF-3.3, JENDL-4.0, CENDL-3.2 and TENDL-2019. The theoretical nuclear model calculations were performed using the TALYS-1.95 code with default and optimized input parameters tuned to reproduce the present and literature data. The present data are in good agreement with other literature and evaluated data. The results are useful for the development of particle accelerators, reactors and the EXFOR database.