Speaker
Description
Zr is a ductile metal, with exceptional resistance to corrosion and heat, properties which make it essential in nuclear reactors, chemical and medical applications and other. On top of that, Zr has a very low absorption rate of the neutrons released by nuclear fission reactions, making it an ideal cladding material for nuclear fuel rods. Therefore, neutron cross-section data must be available for a wide energy range.
In this context, natural Zr targets were irradiated in the neutron energy range 16-18 MeV at the Van de Graaff Tandem accelerator of NCSR “Demokritos”. The irradiated Zr targets, as well as reference Al and Au were measured at HPGe detectors, where γ-rays from various (n,x) channels were detected. The cross-sections of the (n,2n), (n,p) and (n,α) reactions on $^{90}$Zr, the isotope with the highest abundance (51.46%) of natural Zr, leading to $^{89}$Ζr, and metastable states of $^{90m}$Y and $^{87m}$Sr, respectively, have been deduced using the activation technique and will be presented here.