Anomalous fluctuations of s-wave reduced neutron widths of 192,194Pt resonances.

We obtained an unprecedentedly large number of s-wave neutron widths through R-matrix analysis of neutron cross-section measurements on enriched Pt samples. Careful analysis of these data rejects the validity of the Porter-Thomas distribution with a statistical significance of at least 99.997%.

Evaluation of silicon neutron resonance parameters in the thermal to 1800 keV energy range.

Because silicon is a major constituent of concrete and soil, neutron and gamma ray information on silicon is important for reactor shielding and criticality safety calculations. Therefore, much effort was put into the ENDF/B-VI evaluation for the three stable isotopes of silicon. The neutron capture cross section of natural silicon was recently measured at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA) in the energy range 1-700 keV. Using the ENDF/B-VI evaluation for initial values, a new evaluation of the resonance parameters was performed by adding the results of the ORELA capture measurements to the experimental database. The computer code SAMMY was used for the analysis of the experimental data; the new version of SAMMY allows accurate calculations of the self-shielding and multiple scattering effects in the capture measurements. The accuracy of the radiative capture widths of the resonances was improved by this analysis. Accurate values of the s-, p- and d-wave neutron strength functions were also obtained. Although the resonance capture component of the present evaluation is 2-3 times smaller than that in ENDF/B-VI, the total capture cross section is much larger, at least for energies >250 keV, because the direct capture component contributes values of the same order of magnitude as the resonance component. The direct component was not taken into account in the ENDF/B-VI evaluation and was calculated for the first time in the present evaluation.

Neutron cross section measurements at ORELA for improved nuclear data and their application.

To support the Nuclear Criticality Safety Program, the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator (ORELA) has been used to measure the total and capture neutron cross sections of several nuclides in the energy range from 100 eV to -600 keV. Concerns about the use of existing cross section data in nuclear criticality calculations have been a prime motivator for the new cross-section measurements. Our new capture cross sections of aluminium, silicon, chlorine, fluorine and potassium in the energy range from 100 eV to 600 keV are substantially different from the cross sections in evaluated nuclear data files of ENDF/B-VI and JENDL-3.2.