Measurement of the neutron capture cross-section of 238U at neutron energies of 5.9 ± 0.5 and 15.5 ± 0.7 MeV by using the neutron activation technique

Highlights: • 238U(n, γ) reaction cross-section is measured for the first time at En = 15.5 MeV. • 38U(n, γ) reaction cross-section (σ) at En = 5.9 MeV is the re-determined value. • 238U(n, 2n) reaction cross-section (σ) at En = 15.5 MeV is the re-determined value. • σ Of 238U(n, γ) reaction are similar to TALYS, ENDF, JENDL, JEFF but not CENDL. • σ Of 238U(n, 2n) reaction are similar to TALYS, ENDF, JENDL, JEFF but not CENDL. - Abstract: The 238U(n, γ)239U reaction cross-sections at average neutron energies of 5.9 ± 0.5 and 15.5 ± 0.7 MeV from the 7Li(p, n) reaction have been determined using neutron activation and off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique. The 238U(n, 2n)237U reaction cross-section at neutron energy of 15.5 ± 0.7 MeV has also been determined using the same technique. The 238U(n, γ)239U and 238U(n, 2n)237U reaction cross-sections have been calculated theoretically using nuclear reaction model based TALYS-1.4 code and are found to be in general agreement with measured experimental data. The present data are compared with the values from the latest available evaluated nuclear data libraries and found to be agreement with the data of ENDF/B-VII.1, JENDL-4.0 and JEFF-3.1/A but not with that of CENDL-3.1