Eur. Phys. J. A (2016) 52: 148
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2016-16148-4

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

The neutron cross-section functions for the reactions ¹⁸⁷Re(n,)¹⁸⁴Ta, ¹⁸⁷Re(n,2n)¹⁸⁶Re and ¹⁸⁵Re(n,2n)¹⁸⁴Re in the energy range 13.08-19.5 MeV

¹ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM), Retieseweg 111, 2440, Geel, Belgium
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovica 3, 21000, Novi Sad, Serbia

^* e-mail: Stephan.OBERSTEDT@ec.europa.eu

Received: 2 March 2016
Revised: 5 April 2016
Accepted: 14 April 2016
Published online: 31 May 2016

Abstract

In the present work, measurements of the cross-section functions for the ¹⁸⁷Re(n,)¹⁸⁴Ta, ¹⁸⁷Re(n,2n)¹⁸⁶Re and ¹⁸⁵Re(n,2n)¹⁸⁴Re reactions were performed in the energy range 13.08-19.5 MeV. We applied the neutron activation technique using several wide-energy neutron beams (NAXSUN), recently developed at the JRC-IRMM. This method involves measuring the activity of the radionuclides produced in a target by the in energy overlapping neutron beams and a subsequent unfolding procedure. The present results are the first experimental data on these cross-sections for incident neutron energies between 15 and 19.5MeV and may contribute to improving evaluations and nuclear models.