Study of the Li(d, xn) reaction for the development of accelerator-based neutron sources

Yukinobu Watanabe,Tadahiro Kin,Hiroki Sadamatsu,Keita Nakano,Tatsushi Shima,Daiki Satoh,Hiroshi Yashima,Shoichiro Kawase,Shinsuke Nakayama,Yosuke Iwamoto,Shouhei Araki,Masayuki Hagiwara

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202023920012

Abstract

Double-differential neutron production cross sections (DDXs) for deuteron-induced reactions on Li at 200 MeV were measured for emission angles ranging from 0◦ to 25◦ in steps of 5◦ by means of a time of flight (TOF) method with EJ301 liquid organic scintillators at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka University. The measured DDXs were compared to theoretical model calculations with the DEURACS and PHITS codes and TENDL-2017 nuclear data. It was found that the DEURACS calculation is in better agreement with the measured DDXs than the PHITS calculation, while TENDL-2017 fails to reproduce both the spectral shape and magnitude of the measured DDXs for all angles.

Highlights

Accelerator-based neutron sources utilizing deuteroninduced reactions on Li, Be, C, etc., are proposed for various neutron beam applications such as radioisotopes production for medical use, irradiation tests of fusion reactor materials, and transmutation of long-lived radioactive nuclear waste
Neutron production data for neutron converters bombarded by deuterons are required for optimizing the design of such neutron sources
Each neutron spectrum has a characteristic broad peak around 100 MeV corresponding to half the incident energy, and the peak becomes sharper and sharper with decreasing angle

Summary

Introduction

Accelerator-based neutron sources utilizing deuteroninduced reactions on Li, Be, C, etc., are proposed for various neutron beam applications such as radioisotopes production for medical use, irradiation tests of fusion reactor materials, and transmutation of long-lived radioactive nuclear waste. Neutron production data for neutron converters bombarded by deuterons are required for optimizing the design of such neutron sources. Several experimental data of thick target neutron yields (TTNYs) have been reported at incident deuteron energies ranging from 5 to 40 MeV [1], while DDX data measured with thin target are very limited to only three incident energies of 25 MeV [2], 40 MeV [3], and 102 MeV [4]. Compared to TTNYs, DDX data are more useful for direct benchmark tests of theoretical models and evaluated nuclear data. The experimental data are compared with theoretical model calculations with PHITS (Particle and Heavy Ion Transport System) [5] and DEURACS

Experimental method

Data analysis

Experimental results

Comparison with model calculation and nuclear data

40 MeV 102MeV 25MeV

Summary and outlook