Determination of cross sections of 60Ni(n,2n)59Ni induced by 14MeV neutrons with accelerator mass spectrometry

Abstract The cross section of the 60 Ni( n ,2 n ) 59 Ni induced by neutron with energy around 14 MeV is important for a fusion environment. However, the published values are strongly discordant. By taking advantage of the high sensitivity of 59 Ni measurement at China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE), determination of the cross section has been carried out. A natural Nickel foil was irradiated by neutrons produce by a T(D, n ) α neutron generator. 57 Co and 58 Co which produced in the Nickel foil were chosen for the neutron fluence determination. Then the ratio of 59 Ni/ 60 Ni for the irradiated sample was determined via accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) utilizing a 13MV tandem accelerator and a Q3D magnet spectrometry at CIAE. As a result, the cross section of 60 Ni( n ,2 n ) 59 Ni for the incident neutron energy of (14 . 60 ± 0 . 40) MeV was determined to be (426 ± 53) mb.