MANTRA: An Integral Reactor Physics Experiment to Infer the Neutron Capture Cross Sections of Actinides and Fission Products in Fast and Epithermal Spectra

Abstract

This paper presents an update of an on-going collaborative INL-ANL-ISU integral reactor physics experiment whose objective is to infer the effective neutron capture cross sections for most of the actinides of importance for reactor physics and fuel cycle studies in both fast and epithermal spectra. Some fission products are also being considered. The principle of the experiment is to irradiate very pure actinide samples in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL and, after a given time, determine the amount of the different transmutation products. The determination of the nuclide densities before and after neutron irradiation together with the neutron fluence will allow inference of effective neutron capture cross-sections in different neutron spectra.