Cross sections for the formation of long-lived radionuclides10Be,26Al and36Cl in 14.6 MeV neutron induced reactions determined via accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)

Abstract

Cross sections for the neutron induced production of the long-lived radionuclides10Be (from carbon),26Al (from aluminium) and36Cl (from potassium) were determined, and upper limits for the formation of10Be from nitrogen and oxygen were estimated. Target samples were irradiated with 14.6±0.2 MeV neutrons in Debrecen, Hungary. After radiochemical separations and preparation of suitable samples at Köln, Germany, the above mentioned long-lived radionuclides were measured via ultrasensitive accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in Zürich, Switzerland. Our cross section value for the27Al(n,2n)26Al reaction is within the range of the reported AMS data. For the other two reactions, viz.13C(n,α)10Be and39K(n,α)36Cl, our work describes the first results obtained via measurement of the product nuclides. The experimental results for all the three investigated reactions fall within the range of values obtained from semi-empirical systematics described in the literature.