Calculation of photo-nuclear reaction cross sections for 16O

Abstract

Because of the high thermal expansion coefficient of uranium, the fuel used in nuclear power plants is usually in the form of UO2 which has ceramic structure and small thermal expansion coefficient. UO2 include one uranium atom and two oxygen atoms. After fission progress, total energy values of emitted gamma are about 14 MeV. This gamma energy may cause transmutation of 16O isotopes. Transmutation of 16O isotopes changes physical properties of nuclear fuel. Due to above explanations, it is very important to calculate photo-nuclear reaction cross sections of 16O. In this study; for (γ,p), (γ,np), (γ,n) and (γ,2n) reactions of 16O, photo-nuclear reaction cross-sections were calculated using different models for pre-equilibrium and equilibrium effects. Taking incident gamma energy values up to 40 MeV, Hybrid and Cascade Exciton Models were used for pre-equilibrium calculations and Weisskopf-Ewing (Equilibrium) Model was used for equilibrium model calculations. Calculation results were compared with experimental and theoretical data. While experimental results were obtained from EXFOR, TENDL-2013, JENDL/PD-2004 and ENDF/B VII.1 data base were used to get theoretical results.