Measurement of effective 98Mo(n,γ)99 Mo reaction cross-section in the epi-cadmium neutron flux produced by 10 MeV electron LINAC with Ta-BeO assembly

• Published in: Journal of radioanalytical and nuclear chemistry Vol. 333; no. 8; pp. 3793 - 3806
• Main Authors: Deo, Kapil, Kumar, Rajeev, Mallick, Amod K., Samanta, Sudipta, Bhandari, Deep, Sarkar, Anindita, Umasankari, K., Chaudhary, Nishant, Pant, Amar D., Verma, Amit, Anilkumar, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.08.2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bremsstrahlung; Cadmium; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Diagnostic Radiology; Feasibility studies; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; High density polyethylenes; Inorganic Chemistry; Linear accelerators; Neutron flux; Neutrons; Nuclear Chemistry; Nuclear cross sections; Nuclear Physics; Physical Chemistry; Mo; Epi-cadmium neutrons; Tc Medical radioisotopes; Ta-BeO assembly; Mo(n,γ); Mo reaction; Electron accelerator
• ISSN: 0236-5731; 1588-2780
• DOI: 10.1007/s10967-024-09521-7

An experiment was carried out to study the feasibility of 99 Mo production using an electron accelerator based epi-cadmium neutron source. The neutrons were produced by the interaction of bremsstrahlung end-point energy of 10 MeV with BeO blocks and the neutrons thus produced were moderated using High Density Polyethylene blocks. Effective cross-section of 98 Mo(n,γ) 99 Mo reaction was measured using foil activation method. An enhancement in the effective cross-section due to resonances in the epi-cadmium region was observed. The photons and neutron production/transport in the experimental set-up were simulated using the FLUKA Monte Carlo code. The simulations were found to be in good agreement with the experimental findings.