Activation cross sections of proton induced nuclear reactions on neodymium up to 65 MeV

Abstract

In the frame of a systematic study of the activation cross sections of charged particle induced nuclear reactions on rare earths for production of therapeutic radionuclides, proton induced reactions on neodymium were measured up to 65 MeV energy, above 45 MeV for the first time. The excitation functions of the natNd(p,x)150,149,148m,148g,146,144,143,141Pm, 149,147,141,140,139m,138Nd, 142,138mPr and 139gCe nuclear reactions were assessed by using stacked foil activation technique and high resolution γ-spectrometry. The excitation functions were compared to the theoretical predictions, available in the TENDL-2015 library based on latest version of the TALYS code. The application of the data for medical isotope production is shortly discussed.