Experimental work on Nuclear Astrophysics at JRC GELINA facility

Abstract

JRC Geel operates a neutron time-of-flight facility based on an electron accelerator, GELINA. Experimental setups to determine total and reaction cross sections (capture, elastic and inelastic scattering, fission and charged particle reactions) are available at measurement stations different flight-path length. While most of the experimental work is focussed on nuclear energy applications, regularly cross section of interest for astrophysical problems are measured. Examples of those are capture experiments of nuclei relevant for the s-process such as 89Y or the 16O (n,α) reaction which is the inverse of the 13C(α,n) reaction, an important source of neutrons feeding the s-process.