New intermediate-energy nuclear data libraries for Fe

Abstract

New ENDF-6 formatted nuclear data libraries are presented for 54Fe, 56Fe, 57Fe, and 58Fe, for incident neutrons and protons between 0 and 200 MeV. The main objective of this work is to provide a comprehensive and improved description of all nuclear processes in the intermediate-energy range. This is accomplished by means of computational analyses carried out with the nuclear model code TALYS. Apart from the resonance range, which we have adopted from the best available source in existing libraries, the nuclear data files for the less abundant iron isotopes, 54Fe, 57Fe, and 58Fe, are completely new in the whole energy range. The new data library for 56Fe is based entirely on the existing JEFF-3.0 library below 20 MeV and extended with TALYS results up to 200 MeV. The most important nuclear reaction models needed for our data files are described. We use a consistent method to store the data in ENDF-6 format, including cross sections, angular distributions, double-differential spectra, discrete and continuum photon production cross sections, and residual production (activation) cross sections including isomers. It is shown that the data present in our libraries give a good agreement with existing basic experimental data. Moreover, we have validated the new libraries with a shielding benchmark.