The total neutron production from the alpha induced reaction on natural   Zirconium

Vafiya Thaslim T T; M M Musthafa; Midhun C V; S. Ghugre; Gokul Das H,; Swapna B; Najmunnisa T; F S Shana; Rijin N T; S Dasgupta; J Datta

arXiv:2303.00424·nucl-ex·August 9, 2023

The total neutron production from the alpha induced reaction on natural Zirconium

Vafiya Thaslim T T, M M Musthafa, Midhun C V, S. Ghugre, Gokul Das H,, Swapna B, Najmunnisa T, F S Shana, Rijin N T, S Dasgupta, J Datta

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TL;DR

This study measures neutron production from alpha particle reactions on natural Zirconium up to 40 MeV, combining experimental data and theoretical estimates to improve understanding of neutron yields in reactor environments.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of the isomeric cross section ratio for $^{95}Nb$ production and estimates total neutron yields using both experimental and theoretical methods.

Findings

01

Measured neutron production cross sections up to 35 MeV

02

Estimated total neutron yield using TALYS 1.96

03

First reported isomeric cross section ratio for $^{95}Nb$

Abstract

A significant amount of alpha particles, upto $\sim$ 35 MeV are produced in the reactor environment. Alpha induced reaction on natural Zirconium, a reactor component, upto 40 MeV has been measured using stacked foil activation technique. The total neutron production cross section from all possible channels for $α$ energies upto 35 MeV is also estimated using TALYS 1.96. The isomeric cross section ratio for the production of the radionuclide $^{95} N b$ has been measured and reported for the first time.

Tables3

Table 1. Table 1: The characteristics of the reaction products.

Residual Nucleus	Half life	Contributing
	Q-value	reactions
	$E_{t h}$
	(MeV)
${}^{99}M o$	$65.97 h$	${}^{96}Z r (α, n)$	$- 5.12$	5.29
${}^{93 m}M o$	$6.85 h$	${}^{90}Z r (α, n)$	$- 7.61$	7.95
		${}^{91}Z r (α, 2 n)$	$- 14.81$	15.46
		${}^{92}Z r (α, 3 n)$	$- 23.44$	24.46
${}^{96}N b$	$23.35 h$	${}^{94}Z r (α, d)$	$- 12.38$	12.9
		${}^{94}Z r (α, p n)$	$- 14.60$	15.11
		${}^{96}Z r (α, t n)$	$- 20.43$	21.28
		${}^{96}Z r (α, d 2 n)$	$- 26.69$	27.6
		${}^{96}Z r (α, p 3 n)$	$- 28.91$	29.9
${}^{95 g}N b$	$34.99 d$	${}^{92}Z r (α, p)$	$- 6.54$	6.82
		${}^{94}Z r (α, t)$	$- 13.01$	13.56
		${}^{94}Z r (α, n d)$	$- 19.27$	19.94
		${}^{94}Z r (α, 2 n p)$	$- 21.49$	22.24
		${}^{96}Z r (α, t 2 n)$	$- 27.32$	28.46
		${}^{96}Z r (α, 3 n d)$	$- 33.58$	34.72
		${}^{96}Z r (α, 4 n p)$	$- 35.8$	37.02
${}^{95 m}N b$	$3.6 d$	${}^{92}Z r (α, p)$	$- 6.54$	6.82
		${}^{94}Z r (α, t)$	$- 13.01$	13.56
		${}^{94}Z r (α, n d)$	$- 19.27$	19.94
		${}^{94}Z r (α, 2 n p)$	$- 21.49$	22.24
		${}^{96}Z r (α, 2 n t)$	$- 27.32$	28.46
		${}^{96}Z r (α, 3 n d)$	$- 33.58$	34.72
		${}^{96}Z r (α, 4 n p)$	$- 35.8$	37.02
${}^{92 m}N b$	$10.15 d$	${}^{90}Z r (α, d)$	$- 13.03$	13.61
		${}^{90}Z r (α, n p)$	$- 13.53$	15.82
		${}^{91}Z r (α, t)$	$- 13.97$	14.58
		${}^{91}Z r (α, n d)$	$- 20.22$	20.96
		${}^{91}Z r (α, 2 n p)$	$- 22.45$	23.27
		${}^{92}Z r (α, t n)$	$- 22.6$	23.58
		${}^{92}Z r (α, 2 n d)$	$- 8.86$	29.9
		${}^{92}Z r (α, 3 n p)$	$- 31.08$	32.2
${}^{90 g}N b$	$14.6 h$	${}^{90}Z r (α, t n)$	$- 26.71$	27.9
		${}^{90}Z r (α, 2 n d)$	$- 32.96$	34.18
		${}^{90}Z r (α, 3 n p)$	$- 35.19$	36.49
		${}^{91}Z r (α, t 2 n)$	$- 33.9$	$35.14$
${}^{89 g}Z r$	$78.41 h$	${}^{90}Z r (α, α n)$	$- 11.97$	12.5
		${}^{90}Z r (α, d t)$	$- 29.56$	30.74
		${}^{90}Z r (α, n p t)$	$- 31.78$	32.95
		${}^{90}Z r (α, 2 n^{3} H e)$	$- 32.54$	33.75
		${}^{90}Z r (α, n 2 d)$	$- 35.81$	37.14
		${}^{91}Z r (α, α 2 n)$	$- 19.16$	20.01
		$91 Z r (α, 2 t)$	$- 30.49$	31.60
		${}^{92}Z r (α, α 3 n)$	$- 27.8$	29.01

Table 2. Table 3: The abundances of the isotopes present in Z n a t r superscript 𝑍 𝑛 𝑎 𝑡 𝑟 {}^{nat}Zr .

Isotopes	Abundance (%)
${}^{90}Z r$	$51.45$
${}^{91}Z r$	$11.22$
${}^{92}Z r$	$17.15$
${}^{94}Z r$	$17.38$
${}^{96}Z r$	$2.80$

Table 3. Table 4: The isomeric cross section ratios for Z n a t r ( α , x ) 95 g , m N b superscript 𝑍 𝑛 𝑎 𝑡 𝑟 superscript 𝛼 𝑥 95 𝑔 𝑚 𝑁 𝑏 {}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{95g,m}Nb reaction.

Energy(MeV)	Isomeric cross section ratio
$20.4 \pm 0.5$	$0.1 \pm 0.02$
$29.6 \pm 0.4$	$0.13 \pm 0.01$
$32.3 \pm 0.4$	$0.1 \pm 0.01$
$39.7 \pm 0.3$	$0.07 \pm 0.01$

Equations2

G (E_{γ}) = \frac{C ( E _{γ} )}{t A _{0} I _{γ}}

G (E_{γ}) = \frac{C ( E _{γ} )}{t A _{0} I _{γ}}

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Taxonomy

TopicsNuclear Physics and Applications · Cold Fusion and Nuclear Reactions

Full text

\jyear

2021

[1]\fnmM M Musthafa \sur

[1]\orgdivDepartment of Physics, \orgnameUniversity of Calicut, \cityMalappuram, \postcode673635, \stateKerala, \countryIndia 2]\orgdivUGC-DAE-Consortium for Scientific Research, \cityKolkata, \postcode700098, \stateWest Bengal, \countryIndia 3]\orgnameGovt. Arts and Science College, \orgaddress\streetMeenchanda, \cityKozhikode, \postcode673018, \stateKerala, \countryIndia

4]\orgdivDepartment of Physics, \orgnameJain University, \cityBanglore, \postcode560069, \stateKarnataka, \countryIndia 5]\orgdivAnalytical Chemistry Division, \orgnameBhabha Atomic Research Centre, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, \cityKolkata, \postcode700064, \stateWest Bengal, \countryIndia

The total neutron production from the alpha induced reaction on natural Zirconium

\fnmVafiya Thaslim T T \sur

[email protected]

\fnmMidhun C V \sur

S. Ghugre

Gokul Das H

Swapna B

Najmunnisa T

F S Shana

Rijin N T

S Dasgupta

J Datta

[

Abstract

A significant amount of alpha particles, upto $\sim$ 35 MeV are produced in the reactor environment. Alpha induced reaction on natural Zirconium, a reactor component, upto 40 MeV has been measured using stacked foil activation technique. The total neutron production cross section from all possible channels for $\alpha$ energies upto 35 MeV is also estimated using TALYS 1.96. The isomeric cross section ratio for the production of the radionuclide ${}^{95}Nb$ has been measured and reported for the first time.

keywords:

Production cross sections, natural Zirconium, isomeric cross section ratio, neutron production

1 Introduction

Nuclear reaction studies in the vicinity of the reactor domain have the greatest scope even now. Possibilities of various nuclear reactions in the reactor environment and their effect should be accounted properly for the structural integrity and safe operation of critical systems. The spontaneous decay and ternary fission of heavy radioactive nuclei like U, Th, Pu, etc, used as fuel in the reactor, leading to the production of high energy alpha particles up to 35 MeV. Absolute yield of production of the alpha particles in the neutron-induced ternary fission of uranium nucleus is much more compared to the production of protons and tritons DHONDT1980461 . The energy distribution of alpha particles emitted in a typical neutron induced fission reaction on Uranium fluoride layers, with a thickness of 199 ${\mu g}/{{cm}^{2}}$ and an isotopic enrichment of 99.524% are shown in Fig. 1 WAGEMANS2004291 .

These alpha particles will induce various nuclear reactions with the materials used as the reactor components. Zirconium is one of the major components used as cladding or outer covering of the fuel rods, due to their low thermal neutron capture cross sections and high corrosion resistance. There is a chance for the interaction of the alpha particles with these Zirconium materials in the reactor domain within the energy range. Moreover, recent studies show the presence of alpha particles in the interested energy domain on the surface of the lunar farside from the Chang’E-4 mission Spacealpha , this may lead to the interaction with Zirconium materials used as a structural material in spacecraft WEI2021150420 . The available experimental data for alpha induced reaction on natural Zirconium over the energies of interest are found to be limited in the EXFOR Otuka_2020 library and the literature.

Considering the above fact, we have studied the production cross-sections for ${}^{96}Zr(\alpha,x)^{99}Mo$ , ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{93m}Mo$ , ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{96}Nb$ , ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{95m,g}Nb$ , ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{92m}Nb$ , ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{89g}Zr$ and ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{90}Nb$ reaction channels. The residual production cross sections are determined and the production cross sections of the neutron, proton, deuteron, triton, and alpha particles are estimated for energy upto 35 MeV. To the best of our knowledge the production cross section for ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{90}Nb$ reaction in the interested energy domain is being reported for the first time. Also, the residual nucleus ${}^{89g}Zr$ and ${}^{90}Nb$ have high medical importance, particularly in the diagnosis of tumors and therapy.

From the measured cross sections of ${}^{nat}Zr(\alpha,x)^{95m,g}Nb$ reactions, the isomeric cross-section ratio(ICR) for ${}^{95g,m}Nb$ residues is determined. To the best of our knowledge, the experimental isomeric cross-section ratio for the radionuclide ${}^{95g,m}Nb$ is reported for the first time. Measurements on isomeric cross section ratio will give insight into nuclear structural studies, the population of the spin state of the nuclei Satheesh_2011 ; satheesh_2012 and progress of nuclear reactions. Theoretical analysis of the data has been carried out using TALYS 1.96 Talys code.

2 Experimental Details and Analysis

The experiment was carried out at Variable Energy Cyclotron Center (VECC), Kolkata, India, using the K-130 Cyclotron facility. Stacked foil activation technique has been employed for the measurement of cross-sections. Two stacks containing the samples of natural Zirconium of thickness 6.49 $mg/{{cm}^{2}}$ were irradiated with alpha particles of 30 MeV and 40 MeV beams separately, with an average beam current of 100 nA. The four samples were arranged in two stacks to minimize the energy spread over the energy range of interest. The mean energy corresponding to each sample was $20.4$ , $29.6$ , $32.3$ , and $39.7$ MeVs, and was calculated using SRIM SRIM . The mean energy on each sample has been calculated on the basis of energy falling on the sample and the energy loss within the thickness of the sample. The activities induced in the samples were counted using 100cc HPGe detector(CANBERRA) coupled to MCA. The detector was calibrated for energy and efficiency using standard point source of ${}^{152}Eu$ of known activity.

The collected data were analyzed using the data analysis framework CANDLE candle and the absolute photo peak efficiency, which depends upon the geometry is calculated by equation (1)

[TABLE]

where $C(E_{\gamma})$ is the count under the photo peak, t is the counting time, $A_{0}$ is the known activity of the ${}^{152}Eu$ sample source and $I_{\gamma}$ is the branching ratio of the interested gamma ray. The production cross-sections of the obtained channels are determined by the known activation equation (LABEL:eqn2) MUSTHAFA2005419 .

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