Interaction of neutrons with /sup 9/Be at 14. 6 MeV

A metallic /sup 9/Be target was bombarded with 14.6-MeV neutrons. Double-differential cross sections were measured for the (n,/alpha/) a reaction in the angular range from 0 to 100 deg. The measured alpha-particle spectra and complementary neutron spectra from the literature were analyzed in terms of a combination of sequential and simultaneous breakups. The results show that --50% of the total inelastic cross section is due to simultaneous breakup n + /sup 9/Be /yields/ n + /alpha/ + /sup 5/He, while the remainder is mainly due to neutron inelastic scattering to the three excited states of /sup 9/Be: 2.43, 6.76, and 11.28 MeV. This analysis gives evidence of the validity of the constant matrix element model and contradicts evaluations that ignore the simultaneous breakup contributions.