Neutron-induced fission cross-section measurement of 234U with quasi-monoenergetic beams in the keV and MeV range using micromegas detectors

Abstract

Accurate data on neutron-induced fission cross-sections of actinides are essential for the design of advanced nuclear reactors based either on fast neutron spectra or alternative fuel cycles, as well as for the reduction of safety margins of existing and future conventional facilities. The fission cross-section of $^{234}$U was measured at incident neutron energies of 560 and 660 keV and 7.5 MeV with a setup based on ‘microbulk’ Micromegas detectors and the same samples previously used for the measurement performed at the CERN n_TOF facility (Karadimos et al., 2014). The $^{235}$U fission cross-section was used as reference. The (quasi-)monoenergetic neutron beams were produced via the 7Li(p,n) and the 2H(d,n) reactions at the neutron beam facility of the Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the ‘Demokritos’ National Centre for Scientific Research. A detailed study of the neutron spectra produced in the targets and intercepted by the samples was performed coupling the NeuSDesc and MCNPX codes, taking into account the energy spread, energy loss and angular straggling of the beam ions in the target assemblies, as well as contributions from competing reactions and neutron scattering in the experimental setup. Auxiliary Monte-Carlo simulations were performed with the FLUKA code to study the behaviour of the detectors, focusing particularly on the reproduction of the pulse height spectra of α-particles and fission fragments (using distributions produced with the GEF code) for the evaluation of the detector efficiency. An overview of the developed methodology and preliminary results are presented.