Measurement of the 232Th Neutron Capture Cross Section at the CERN nTOF Facility

The use of a fuel cycle based on 232Th can substantially reduce the radiotoxicity of the produced nuclear waste since the lower atomic and mass number of thorium results in a strongly suppressed build-up of the higher actinides and especially americium and curium. The design and realization of nuclear power stations based on the use of thorium, either in a critical or subcritical system, require an accurate knowledge of the 232Th(n,γ) reaction cross section. We have measured the neutron capture cross section of 232Th at the recently constructed neutron time-of-flight facility nTOF at CERN in the energy range from 1 eV to 1 MeV. In the resolved resonance region, the resonance parameters have been extracted. In the unresolved resonance region, the neutron capture cross section is given as point-wise data