Neutron activation by neutrons produced via proton-induced spallation in a liquid-mercury target: Measurements and assessment of uncertainties

E. A. Jerde, D. C. Glasgow, J. B. Hastings

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

A preliminary test of a liquid mercury target for the production of neutrons by spallation was undertaken at the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Neutron activation of elemental foils placed on the target demonstrates that a range of neutron energies does exist, as expected, and that the neutron flux is at a maximum 10-20 cm from the front of the target, moving deeper with increasing proton energy. Uncertainties in the activity calculations are in general significantly <10%. Impurities in some of the foils are a significant source of interference for some reactions, although there is no interference for most of the reactions. The presence of many interference-free reactions, along with the low uncertainties indicates that the foils will be useful benchmarks to validate the neutronics codes utilized in the larger design.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)473-485
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Volume242
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1999

Funding

This work was performed as part of the AGS Spallation Target Experiment (ASTE) collaboration. The ASTE collaboration has been formed between several US, European, and Japanese laboratories, to carry out a test program at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) facility. The neutron activation portion of the ASTE program is led by the team from the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). The ORNL team assisted our colleagues from JAERI in performing neutron activation measurements for some of the foils used in these tests. Our thanks go to Jim STOKELY, John HAINES, Lowell CHARLTON, and Tony GABRIEL for early reviews of this paper. Thanks also to the members of the JAERI team for their discussions and to the various spokesmen for the ASTE collaboration teams for their reviews. Managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-96OR22464. The work was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-98CH 10886 with Brookhaven Science Associates.

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