Calculation of Gamma Displacement Cross Sections: Generation of Recoil Spectra from ENDF/B-VII

Radiation damage in materials is caused by the transfer of energy from an incident particle to the target atoms, which results in the redistribution of target atoms. During the nuclear reactor operation, various kinds of radiation are produced, including fast neutron, gamma, beta, high-energy ions etc. These radiations may affect the properties of reactor structural materials in a direct and/or indirect way. It is well known that fast neutrons have an effect on the degradation of materials. Whereas the impact of fast neutrons (En > 1 MeV) on material property changes is clearly recognized, the impact of gamma ray damage to materials is usually not significant. However, there has been some interest in gamma ray damage in metals in promoting accelerated embrittlement of reactor pressure vessel steels in the HFIR (High Flux Isotopes Reactor). In situations where there is a large water gap between pressure vessel and fuel assembly, gamma damage can become comparable to that produced by neutrons, on the basis of displacements per atom (dpa) parameter. A recent analysis of gamma ray displacement damage in the RPV of the General Electric Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) indicated that the ratio of calculated gamma- to neutron-induced displacement damage rates is over 100% at the RPV inner diameter. Under a high gamma dose environment, embrittlement can be accelerated by radiation-enhanced mass transport mechanism. Because gamma rays are much more efficient than neutrons at producing freely-migrating defects, any radiation enhanced or induced processes that depend on the magnitude of defect fluxes to sinks, can be disproportionately affected by gamma. The direct evaluation of the contribution of gamma ray to damage in materials, quantified as a parameter of dpa, is made possible once the displacement damage cross section due to gamma rays are known. In this work, we present calculations for gamma ray displacement cross sections in various materials in the energy range from 0 to 14 MeV