Neutron inelastic scattering from Zr-92 and Zr-94 using time-of-flight technique

There is a growing interest in neutron scattering cross sections in Zr due to the extensive use of this metal in both fission and fusion reactors. The neutron emission cross sections for Zr were requested for JENDL-3 due to the uncertainties in the recently published data. A new measurement was made for the excitation functions of ten levels in both 92Zr and 94Zr isotopes for incident neutron energies up to 4 MeV. Five levels were studied in 92Zr (Ex in keV, J): 934,2+, 1382,0+; 1495,4+; 2066,2+; 2339,3-; and five in 94Zr: 918,2+; 1300,0+, 1469,4+; 1671,2+; 2057,3-. The measurements were performed using a time-of-flight technique with reactor fast neutrons. The charge comparison method was employed for the discrimination between neutrons and gamma-rays. All the measured cross sections were deduced relative to the excitation of 842(2+) keV level of 56Fe and corrected for multiple scattering and beam attenuation. The samples used are enriched to 94 and 93.7 in 92Zr and 94Zr respectively