The production of residual radionuclides by a 250 MeV proton beam

Abstract

Radionuclide production was studied by bombarding Cu, W and Pb targets with a 250 MeV proton beam. The data were obtained by using the off-line γ-spectroscopy method. Six nuclides in Cu, 28 nuclides in W and 34 nuclides in Pb targets were identified and their cross sections were determined. The measured results were compared to other experiments with isotopic Cu and W targets. Corresponding simulations using the MCNPX transport code were also performed to compare the measurements. In the simulations, eight different models or combinations of intranuclear cascade and de-excitation models were introduced. The comparison indicated that most cross sections were fairly reliably predicted for nuclides in the spallation mass region, but differ greatly for nuclides in the medium and fission mass regions.