Neutron yield of thick 12C and 13C targets with 20 and 30 MeV deuterons

The neutron yield of thick targets of carbon, natural and enriched in 13C, bombarded by deuterons of 20 and 30 MeV has been measured by the activation method. The gain with respect to a 12C target is the same as with protons beams. The yield ratio is about 1.2 only and hardly can justify the use of a 13C target with deuteron beams. The data, apart from being of interest for the design of facilities where secondary neutron beams are used, provide a test case for calculations where both beam and target have a weakly bound neutron. The MCNPx code version 2.6.0, despite failing to reproduce some details of the experimental distributions, describes their global properties fairly well, especially the relative yields of the 12C and 13C targets.