Study on Some Structural Fusion Materials for (n,p) Reactions up to 30 MeV Energy

Abstract

The neutron incident energy around 14–15 MeV is enough to excite the nucleus for the reactions such as (n,p), (n,d), (n,2n), (n,t) and (n,α). In fusion reactor structures, a serious damage mechanism has been gas production in the metallic resulting from diverse nuclear reactions, mainly through (n,p) and (n,α) and to some extent through (n,d) and (n,t) reactions above a certain threshold energy. So, working out the systematic of the neutron induced reaction cross sections is of great importance for the definition of the excitation function character for the given reaction taking place on various nuclei at different energies. In this study, (n,p) reactions for some structural fusion materials such as 27Al, 51V, 52Cr, 55Mn and 56Fe have been investigated. The new calculations on the excitation functions of 27Al(n,p)27Mg, 51V(n,p)51Ti, 52Cr(n,p)52V, 55Mn(n,p)55Cr and 56Fe(n,p)56Mn reactions have been carried out up to 30 MeV incident neutron energy. In these calculations, the pre-equilibrium and equilibrium effects have been investigated. Also in the present work, the (n,p) reaction cross-sections have calculated by using evaluated empirical formulas developed by Tel et al. at 14–15 MeV energy. The calculated results are discussed and compared with the experimental data taken from EXFOR database.