Neutron production in several americium compounds

Americium, like other alpha emitting actinides, may indirectly produce neutrons when combined with light target materials. These (alpha,n) reaction neutrons, along with well known photon lines, have been an advantage of the 241Am isotope for diverse applications such as radiography, thickness gauges, neutron sources, and even common household smoke detectors. To characterize these sources, the SOURCES code was used to calculate neutron yields and spectra from 241Am metal, americium oxide, and americium aluminum alloys. Such information may be used as source terms for future transport problems (e.g. shielding calculations). Table 1 contains neutron yields for six americium configurations. The metal, oxides, and alloys were run as homogeneous problems while the interface case was run in both two- and three-region interface modes.