Nuclear Model Calculation of Excitation Functions of Neutron Induced Reactions on the Structural Materials of the Miniature Neutron Source Reactor

Nuclear models calculation of excitation functions was performed using the nuclear theoretical model code EXIFON on the impurity nuclides of the Be-reflector of the MNSR (NIRR-1) element with concentration greater than 100ppm were considered in the energy range of 0-20MeV. Result of the calculated excitation functions obtained with the code EXIFON were compared with the experimental data retrieved from IAEA-Nuclear Data section EXFOR data library. Some of the results of the calculated excitation functions agree well with the experimental data, while some disagree. The good agreement was obtained for nuclides with magic number of neutrons and protons. Shell structure effects were not taken into consideration during calculation with theoretical model code. This might be the reason for disagreement. It is also noted that most of the data retrieved from EXFOR data library were incomplete, scanty, and are measured around 14MeV. This exposed the short coming of using measured data for calculation of excitation functions. On the other hand the result of calculated excitation function with the Code EXIFON seems to give good result.