Cross sections for the formation of long-lived radionuclides 10Be, 26Al and 36Cl in 14.6 MeV neutron induced reactions determined via accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)

Cross sections for the neutron induced production of the long-lived radionuclides 10Be (from carbon), 26Al (from aluminium) and 36Cl (from potassium) were determined, and upper limits for the formation of 10Be from nitrogen and oxygen were estimated. Target samples were irradiated with 14.6 ± 0.2 MeV neutrons in Debrecen, Hungary. After radiochemical separations and preparation of suitable samples at Koeln, Germany, the above mentioned long-lived radionuclides were measured via ultrasensitive accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) in Zuerich, Switzerland. Our cross section value for the 27Al(n,2n)26Al reaction is within the range of the reported AMS data. For the other two reactions, viz. 13C(n,α)10Be and 39K(n,α)36Cl, our work describes the first results obtained via measurement of the product nuclides. The experimental results for all the three investigated reactions fall within the range of values obtained from semi-empirical systematics described in the literature. (orig.)