Interim report on research between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute on neutron-capture cross sections by Long-Lived Fission Product nuclides (Document on Collaborative Study)

Furutaka, Kazuyoshi  ; Nakamura, Shoji  ; Harada, Hideo   ; Raman, S.*; Koehler, P. E.*

Neutron capture cross sections of long-lived fission products (LLFP) are important quantities as fundamental data for the study of nuclear transmutation of radioactive wastes. Previously obtained thermal-neutron capture -ray data were analyzed to deduce the partial neutron-capture cross sections of LLFPs including Tc, Zr, and Pd for thermal neutrons. By comparing the decay -ray data and prompt -ray data for Tc, the relation between the neutron-capture cross section deduced by the two different methods was studied. For the isotopes Zr and Pd, thermal neutron-capture -ray production cross sections were deduced for the first time. The level schemes of Tc, Zr, and Pd have also been constructed from the analyzed data and compared with previously reported levels. This work has been done under the cooperative program "Neutron Capture Cross Sections of Long-Lived Fission Products (LLFPs)" by Japan nuclear cycle development institute (JNC) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).