Light-ion production in the interaction of 175 MeV quasi-mono-energetic neutrons with iron and with bismuth

TL;DR

This study measures light-ion production from 175 MeV neutrons on iron and bismuth, providing data crucial for nuclear reaction modeling and applications like nuclear waste incineration.

Contribution

It offers new experimental double-differential cross section data for light-ion production at intermediate energies, and compares these with multiple nuclear reaction models.

Findings

Models generally agree with data but show systematic differences.

Provides updated bismuth data with improved analysis.

Enhances nuclear data for intermediate energy neutron interactions.

Abstract

Nuclear data for neutron-induced reactions in the intermediate energy range of 20 to 200 MeV are of great importance for the development of nuclear reaction codes since little data exist in that range. Also several different applications benefit from such data, notably accelerator-driven incineration of nuclear waste. The Medley setup was used for a series of measurements of p, d, t, $^3$He and $\alpha$-particle production by 175 MeV quasi-mono-energetic neutrons on various target nuclei. The measurements were performed at the The Svedberg Laboratory in Uppsala, Sweden. Eight detector telescopes placed at angles between 20$^\circ$ and 160$^\circ$ were used. Medley uses the $\Delta E$-$\Delta E$-$E$ technique to discriminate among the particle types and is able to measure double-differential cross sections over a wide range of particle energies. This paper briefly describes the experimental setup, summarizes the data analysis and reports on recent changes in the previously reported preliminary data set on bismuth. Experimental data are compared with INCL4.5-Abla07, MCNP6 using CEM03.03, TALYS and PHITS model calculations as well as with nuclear data evaluations. The models agree fairly well overall but in some cases systematic differences are found.