Eur. Phys. J. A (2024) 60: 246
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-024-01453-w

Regular Article

Measurement and analysis of the $_{}^{246}$Cm and $_{}^{248}$Cm neutron capture cross-sections at the EAR2 of the n_TOF facility at CERN

¹ Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
² Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Tokai-mura, Japan
³ European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
⁴ University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
⁵ Institut de Physique Nucléaire, CNRS-IN2P3, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91406, Orsay Cedex, France
⁶ Technische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria
⁷ CEA Irfu, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
⁹ Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
¹⁰ INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania, Italy
¹¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, Catania, Italy
¹² University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
¹³ Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
¹⁴ University of York, York, UK
¹⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
¹⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Geologia, Università di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
¹⁷ University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
¹⁸ Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
¹⁹ Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
²⁰ Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain
²¹ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-Osservatorio Astronomico di Teramo, Teramo, Italy
²² Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Bari, Bari, Italy
²³ National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
²⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
²⁵ Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI), Villingen, Switzerland
²⁶ University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
²⁷ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia
²⁸ Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
²⁹ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Mǎgurele, Romania
³⁰ Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
³¹ European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Geel, Retieseweg 111, 2440, Geel, Belgium
³² Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus North, IKP, 76021, Karlsruhe, Germany
³³ Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
³⁴ Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
³⁵ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³⁷ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy
³⁸ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
³⁹ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
⁴⁰ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy
⁴¹ Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany
⁴² University of Granada, Granada, Spain
⁴³ University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria
⁴⁴ Department of Physics, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
⁴⁵ Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
⁴⁶ Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Trombay, India
⁴⁷ Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany
⁴⁸ Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

^a victor.alcayne.aicua@cern.ch

Received: 13 September 2024
Accepted: 11 November 2024
Published online: 10 December 2024

Abstract

The $_{}^{246}$Cm(n,$\gamma$) and $_{}^{248}$Cm(n,$\gamma$) cross-sections have been measured at the Experimental Area 2 (EAR2) of the n_TOF facility at CERN with three C$_6^{}$D$_6^{}$ detectors. This measurement is part of a collective effort to improve the capture cross-section data for Minor Actinides (MAs), which are required to estimate the production and transmutation rates of these isotopes in light water reactors and innovative reactor systems. In particular, the neutron capture in $_{}^{246}$Cm and $_{}^{248}$Cm open the path for the formation of other Cm isotopes and heavier elements such as Bk and Cf and the knowledge of (n,$\gamma$) cross-sections of these Cm isotopes plays an important role in the transport, transmutation and storage of the spent nuclear fuel. The reactions $_{}^{246}$Cm(n,$\gamma$) and $_{}^{248}$Cm(n,$\gamma$) have been the two first capture measurements analyzed at n_TOF EAR2. Until this experiment and two recent measurements performed at J-PARC, there was only one set of data of the capture cross-sections of $_{}^{246}$Cm and $_{}^{248}$Cm, that was obtained in 1969 in an underground nuclear explosion experiment. In the measurement at n_TOF a total of 13 resonances of $_{}^{246}$Cm between 4 and 400 eV and 5 of $_{}^{248}$Cm between 7 and 100 eV have been identified and fitted. The radiative kernels obtained for $_{}^{246}$Cm are compatible with JENDL-5, but some of them are not with JENDL-4, which has been adopted by JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0. The radiative kernels obtained for the first three $_{}^{248}$Cm resonances are compatible with JENDL-5, however, the other two are not compatible with any other evaluation and are 20 and 60% larger than JENDL-5.