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Measurement of the 232Th(n, γ)/58Ni(n, p) reaction rate ratio in the leakage neutron field of a fast burst reactor

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Abstract

The γ-ray activities of the activation products from 232Th(n, γ) and 58Ni(n, p) reactions were measured to obtain the reaction rates. The measurement was performed after irradiating a ThO2 tablet and a nickel foil in the leakage neutron field of the Chinese fast burst reactor II. The normalized reaction rates were calculated on the basis of the ENDF/B-VII.1, CENDL-3.1, JENDL-4.0, and BROND-2.2 databases. The experimental 232Th(n, γ)/58Ni(n, p) reaction rate ratio was found to be 4.37 with an uncertainty of 3.8%, consistent with each ratio calculated based on the ENDF/B-VII.1, JENDL-4.0, and BROND-2.2 databases, but was 11.2% larger than the ratio calculated based on the CENDL-3.1 database.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express gratitude to the CFBR-II crew for the irradiation. We are grateful to Prof. Jiansheng Li and Prof. Xiaobing Luo for their enthusiastic and helpful discussions. We sincerely appreciate the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC No.: 91326104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Qiang Wang, Lina Zeng, Zihui Ai, Chun Zheng & Jian Gong

  2. Key Laboratory of Neutron Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Qiang Wang, Lina Zeng, Zihui Ai, Chun Zheng & Jian Gong

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  1. Qiang Wang
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Correspondence to Jian Gong.

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Wang, Q., Zeng, L., Ai, Z. et al. Measurement of the 232Th(n, γ)/58Ni(n, p) reaction rate ratio in the leakage neutron field of a fast burst reactor. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 323, 947–952 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06982-z

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