Activation of stainless steel with high energy neutrons

The development of the next generations of nuclear reactors (accelerator driven systems, ADS, or controlled fusion reactors) needs an important database of cross-sections for various nuclear reactions with high energy neutrons. At the cyclotron of Louvain-la-Neuve, a neutron beam has been developed on the base of a 9Be(d,n)10B reaction. The energy spectrum of the neutron beam is centered on 20 MeV. By using this tool, the activation of iron, chromium and nickel sheets has been measured, and the cross-section of various reactions has been calculated. Some of those cross-sections were available in the literature, and the comparison with our results shows the effect of delayed nucleon emission. The evaluation of the production rate of various isotopes, as well as the energy and relative intensity of their transitions, is very important to evaluate the activation of most stainless steels.