Cross sections for the 17O(n,p)17N and 17O(n,d)16N reactions at 14 MeV

We measured the cross sections for the 17O(n,p)17N and 17O(n,d)16N reactions at a neutron bombarding energy of 14 MeV. A small DT generator was used to produce 14 MeV neutrons which irradiated known mixtures of 16O and 17O. The resulting 16N and 17N activities were transported to a remote counting station where a germanium detector was used to measure the characteristic gamma rays emitted in the beta decays of these isotopes. By using the cross section for the 16O(n,p) reaction as a reference, we determined the cross sections for the 17O(n,p) and 17O(n,d) reactions to be 27.4±6.1 and 5.6±1.9 mb, respectively. copyright 1998 The American Physical Society