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Determination of the 232Th(n,2n)231Th reaction rate in thorium oxide cylinder assembly under D-T neutron source

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Abstract

Aiming at verifying the evaluated cross-section of 232Th(n,2n) reaction for the conceptual design of thorium based subcritical blanket in fusion–fission hybrid reactor, an integral experiment was carried out using activation technique with D-T neutrons. 232Th(n,2n) reaction rates were measured in a ThO2 cylinder assembly with relative uncertainty of 8.0%. The experiment was simulated by MCNP code combining with ENDF/B-VII.0, ENDF/B-VII.1, CENDL-3.1 and JENDL-4.0 databases. The calculated 232Th(n,2n) reaction rates employing JENDL-4.0 show low discrepancy with the measured ones. The results could provide reference to the re-evaluation of 232Th(n,2n) cross-section and the design of fusion–fission hybrid reactor.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (11505164) and the Neutron Physics Key Laboratory Foundation (2015BC02), thanks will be given to the Accelerator Department of INPC for their great work in D-T neutron source operation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Jie Wen & Zhujun Liu

  2. Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, 621900, China

    Jie Wen, Yiwei Yang, Rong Liu, Zhujun Liu, Mei Wang & Zhongwei Wen

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  1. Jie Wen
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  2. Yiwei Yang
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  3. Rong Liu
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  4. Zhujun Liu
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Correspondence to Zhujun Liu.

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Wen, J., Yang, Y., Liu, R. et al. Determination of the 232Th(n,2n)231Th reaction rate in thorium oxide cylinder assembly under D-T neutron source. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 317, 235–242 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-5851-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-018-5851-z

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