MENDL2 and IEAF2001 nuclide production yields databases verification in inter-medium energy range

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Physics
• Computational Physics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS) require accurate simulation of nuclear reactions for design and operation.
• Measuring threshold activation reaction rates provides crucial data for validating simulation codes and nuclear databases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare computer simulations with experimental measurements of activation reaction rates.
• To evaluate the reliability of nuclear databases (MENDL2, MENDL2P, IEAF-2001) and transport codes (LAHET) for simulating ADS.
• To assess the performance of tungsten (W) and W-sodium (Na) composite targets under proton irradiation.

Main Methods:

• Computer simulation of activation reaction rates using the LAHET code.
• Experimental measurement of threshold activation reaction rates for various elements (e.g., 12C, 19F, 197Au) in W and W-Na targets.
• Comparison of simulated rates with experimental data using MENDL2, MENDL2P, and IEAF-2001 nuclear databases.

Main Results:

• Over 1000 activation reaction rates were determined experimentally and computationally.
• Generally satisfactory agreement was found between simulations and experiments for both MENDL2 and IEAF-2001 databases.
• Specific areas for improvement include the simulation of secondary proton production and high-energy neutron interactions.

Conclusions:

• The study validates the reliability of transport codes and nuclear databases for simulating ADS, especially with Na-cooled W targets.
• The findings support the use of activation-based unfolding of neutron spectra within ADS.
• Further research is recommended to enhance the simulation accuracy of high-energy particle transport and interactions.