THERMAL NEUTRON CROSS SECTIONS AND RESONANCE INTEGRALS OF THE REACTIONS O¹⁷(<i>n</i>,α)C¹⁴, Ar³⁶(<i>n</i>,α)S³³, AND N¹⁴(<i>n</i>,<i>p</i>)C¹⁴

Abstract

The thermal neutron cross sections of the exothermic reactions O 17 (n,α)C 14 , Ar 36 (n,α)S 33 , and N 14 (n,p)C 14 have been measured, relative to the activation cross section of gold, by using a pulse ionization chamber technique. The results obtained are 0.235 ± 0.005 barn, 5.52 ± 0.11 millibarns, and 1.83 ± 0.03 barns respectively. All the reactions were shown to have the same cadmium ratio as the B 10 (n,α)Li 7 reaction with accuracies of ±10%, ±40%, and ±3% respectively. The O 17 result shows that capture in this nuclide contributes significantly to neutron absorption in heavy water.