Measurements of neutron capture cross-sections for nuclides of interest in decommissioning (V); Zr(n, )Zr and Zr(n, )Zr reactions at JRR-3

Nakamura, Shoji  ; Kimura, Atsushi   ; Endo, Shunsuke   ; Rovira Leveroni, G.   ; Shibahara, Yuji*

Decommissioning of nuclear facilities generates a wide variety of wastes in large quantities. To make matters more complicated, they are radioactive wastes due to neutron activation. Thus, the neutron capture cross-sections of decommissioned nuclides are required to evaluate the produced radioactivity. This study selected Zr and Zr nuclides from the nuclides targeted for decommissioning, and aimed to measure the thermal-neutron capture cross-sections of Zr and Zr, which contribute to the production of Zr and Zr, respectively. Considering the relatively small cross-sections of Zr isotopes, measurements were performed by a neutron activation method using the pneumatic tube PN-3 of the Japan Research Reactor-3 (JRR-3) because its thermal-neutron flux is 250 times larger than that of the graphite thermal column of the Kyoto University Research Reactor. A natural Zr foil was irradiated in the PN-3 and subjected to -ray spectrometry. The thermal-neutron capture cross-sections were derived according to Westcott's convention to be 50.90.6 millibarns for the Zr(n,)Zr reaction, and 21.90.3 millibarns for the Zr(n,)Zr reaction. These results are consistent with recent evaluation and experimental data. It was demonstrated that the thermal-neutron capture cross-section of the order of millibarns could be straightforwardly measured by using the PN-3 of JRR-3.