International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology 2007
DOI: 10.1051/ndata:07372

Elastic neutron scattering at 96 MeV

Angelica Öhrn¹, Joakim Klug¹, Jan Blomgren¹, Cecilia Gustavsson¹, Philippe Mermod¹, Leif Nilsson¹, Stephan Pomp¹, Michael Österlund¹, Udomrat Tippawan², Alexander Prokofiev³ and Gennady Tutin<sup>4

1</sup>  Department of Neutron Research, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 525, 75120 Uppsala, Sweden
²  Fast Neutron Research Facility, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
³  The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala University, Sweden
⁴  Khlopin Radium Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia

angelica.ohrn@tsl.uu.se

Published online: 21 May 2008

Abstract
A facility for detection of scattered neutrons in the energy interval 50-130 MeV, SCANDAL (SCAttered Nucleon Detection AssembLy), has recently been installed at the 20-180 MeV neutron beam line of the The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala. Elastic neutron scattering from ¹²C, ⁵⁶Fe, ⁸⁹Y and ²⁰⁸Pb has been studied at 96 MeV in the 10-70° interval. The results from ¹²C and ²⁰⁸Pb have recently been published, while the data from ⁵⁶Fe and ⁸⁹Y are under analysis. The achieved energy resolution, 3.7 MeV, is about an order of magnitude better than for any previous experiment above 65 MeV incident energy. The present experiment represents the highest neutron energy where the ground state has been resolved from the first excited state in neutron scattering. A novel method for normalization of the absolute scale of the cross section has been used. The estimated normalization uncertainty, 3%, is unprecedented for a neutron-induced differential cross section measure ment on a nuclear target. The results are compared with modern optical model predictions, based on phenomenology or microscopic theory. Applications for these measurements are nuclear waste incineration, single event upsets in electronics, dosimetry and fast neutron therapy.

© CEA 2008