Delayed neutron measurements for 232Th neutron-induced fission

Abstract

Delayed neutrons (DN) play an important role in nuclear reactor physics. Innovative critical reactor studies bring to light the need of new DN yields data. For the Th fuel cycle, according to the OECD recommendation, DN of the 232Th is needed with an accuracy of 5%. In the literature, significant discrepancies were observed for energies below 4 MeV and data are dispersed around 14 MeV. Therefore, a programme has been undertaken by CEA in order to measure DN yields from 232Th with incident neutron energies from 2 to 16 MeV. In this paper, the experimental setup will be described and preliminary results obtained at the PTB Ion Accelerator Facility of Braunschweig for incident neutron beam energies of 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 16 MeV will be presented.