Measurement of the 241Am neutron capture cross section at the n TOF facility at CERN

Abstract

New neutron cross section measurements of minor actinides have been performed recently in order to reduce the uncertainties in the evaluated data, which is important for the design of advanced nuclear reactors and, in particular, for determining their performance in the transmutation of nuclear waste.We have measured the 241Am(n,gamma ) cross section at the n TOF facility between 0.2 eV and 10 keV with a BaF2 Total Absorption Calorimeter, and the analysis of the measurement has been recently concluded. Our results are in reasonable agreement below 20 eV with the ones published by C. Lampoudis et al. in 2013, who reported a 22% larger capture cross section up to 110 eV compared to experimental and evaluated data published before. Our results also indicate that the 241Am(n,gamma ) cross section is underestimated in the present evaluated libraries between 20 eV and 2 keV by 25%, on average, and up to 35% for certain evaluations and energy ranges.