Measurement of Am, Am Fission Cross Sections at YAYOI

Okawachi, Yasushi ; Oki, Shigeo ; Wakabayashi, Toshio; Yamaguchi, Kenji*; Yamawaki, Michio*

In the framework of the study on transmutation of minor actinide (MA) nuclides with fast reactors, the fission cross section ratios of MA (241Am, 243Am) relative to 235U have been measured by using a back-to-back (BTB) fission chamber at YAYOI fast neutron source reactor. The compact BTB fission chamber was prepared for the measurements in the main experimental hole (Glory hole) passing though the core of YAYOI. Dependence of fission cross section ratios on neutron spectrum was investigated by changing the measurement position in Glory hole from core center to depleted uranium blanket.The measured values of fission cross section ratios were compared with those calculated with the following nuclear data libraries: JENDL-3.2, ENDF/B-VI, and JEF-2.2. It was found that the calculated values for both 241Am and 243Am in the center of the core systematically underestimated the measurements by 10 to 20%. Dispersion of the calculated values among the nuclear data libraries was smaller than the above difference from the measured value. We also see the dependence of C/E value on the measurement position.The present result remained some issues in terms of the measurement accuracy. If we can get rid of those causes, for example, by means of the unfolding technique on pulse height distribution, the result could be utilized as expletive information in nuclear data validation not only for 241Am and 243Am but also for 235U and 238U which characterize the neutron spectrum.