Measurement of production cross section of tritium from oxygen using semi-monoenergetic p-Be and p-Li neutrons

The formation cross sections of tritium from oxygen have been measured in p-Li and p-Be neutron fields installed at the INS SF cyclotron in order to estimate the production of tritium in the cooling water of accelerators. Irradiations were performed with the semi-monoenergetic neutrons produced from the 7Li(p,n) reaction at proton energies (Ep) from 20 up to 40 MeV in 5 MeV steps and those from 9Be(p,n) in 2.5 MeV steps with proton intensities of 2 - 5 (mu) A, which yields from 1011 to 1012 n/cm2 at the target position. The neutron energy spectra were determined by an NE-213 scintillator. The tritium produced in the water used as the oxygen target was extracted by a distillation method, and measured by a liquid scintillation counter. The excitation functions for 16O(n,t)14N reaction obtained by the p-Li and p-Be neutrons agreed well with each other within the experimental uncertainties.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.