OAK-B135 During the underground nuclear tests in Nevada, some of the most important information was obtained by radiochemical analysis of post-test excavations. By adding small samples of refractory and rare earth elements not commonly present in the surrounding soil to the device, a detailed look could be had of the actual event. In order to properly analyze these data, several hundred cross sections are needed at a neutron energy of 14 MeV (a d-t-burn product). Although it has always been assumed that these calculations are correct, insufficient experimental data exist to corroborate this assumption. The purpose of this experiment is to measure two reaction cross sections, namely the(sup 89)Zr (n, 2n)(sup 88)Zr and(sup 89)Zr (n, np)(sup 88)Y reactions. Although the former reaction has been measured in an unpublished report ( A. A. Delucchi and W. Goishi, LANL Report LA-7841-C (1977) pp. 33-36), we intend to reduce the experimental error in this cross section. The latter cross section has not been measured. This case is much simplified because these reaction products have half-lives(approx)100 days compared with(approx)3 days for the target nuclide. Therefore the assay can be accomplished long after the target nuclei have decayed away.
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