237Np reactions with fast neutrons: a phenomenological study

Abstract

Neptunium presents various opportunities as nuclear fuel, especially in deep–space mission power generators. As it is part of the nuclear spent fuel in PWR, waste management concerns due to ²³⁷Np long α-emitting half-life have attracted some attention recently. The scarcity of experimental data in the fast neutron energy range highlights the necessity to investigate the radiative neutron capture and neutron–induced fission cross sections of this radioisotope. In the present work, statistical modeling of these reactions is performed using TALYS in an extended range of neutron energies between 10 keV and 20 MeV. In total, 72 different combinations of code parameters were selected to study the level density and γ-strength function dependence of the cross section in ²³⁸Np. Preequilibrium and compound nucleus formation phenomena are also examined. Theoretical calculations are compared to available experimental total cross section data found in literature in an attempt to investigate any discrepancies between experiment and theory and validate statistical uncertainties.