Excitation functions for the production of radionuclides by neutron-induced reactions on C, O, Mg, Al, Si, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, Te, Pb, and U up to 180 MeV

Abstract

Irradiation experiments with well-characterized, quasi mono-energetic neutrons of energies between 32.7 MeV and 175.4 MeV were performed at UCL/Louvain-la-Neuve and TSL/Uppsala. The abundances of relatively short-lived residual radionuclides from 13 different target elements were determined by γ-spectrometry. More than 100 excitation functions of neutron-induced reactions were unfolded based on the neutron spectra and the radionuclide abundances with the aid of additional information that was provided by "guess" excitation functions calculated by the TALYS 1.0 code. The results are compared with the sparse existing data from other authors. The new excitation functions were validated by calculation of and comparison with experimental thick-target production rates. Consistency with neutron excitation functions up to 1.6 GeV, which were derived earlier by unfolding the thick-target production rates, was so demonstrated.