Revisiting cross sections for proton induced reactions on natural lead between 10 and 80 MeV

Abstract

Abstract This work is focused on the natPb(p,xn)207Bi reaction to extend earlier works on proton induced reactions for the determination of cross sections of residual nuclides. 207Bi decay (half-life 31.55 years) was measured by γ-ray spectrometry in 42 lead foils which had been irradiated by high proton fluxes 20 years ago. Since then, all short-lived radionuclides produced during the irradiation have decayed, so the background is strongly reduced and the cross section could be measured more precisely than during the original measurements. The results are found to be in very good agreement with the historical record. Additionally, theoretical calculations with modern Monte Carlo based codes were performed to compare the calculations of various Bi, Tl and Pb reactions with the historical data and with additional data from literature. The deviations of the new data from both theoretical calculations using EMPIRE and TALYS are discussed.