Requester: Dr Fredrik TOVESSON at LANL, USA
Email: tovesson@lanl.gov

Project (context): Los Alamos National Laboratory

Impact:

• The Np-237 fission cross section has impact for certain fast nuclear reactor designs. A sensitivity study by Aliberti et al. [1] pointed to a target accuracy of 8% for this cross section for Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor of the Gen-IV type (high level waste recycling).
• WPEC Subgroup-26 [2]: Present uncertainty (BOLNA) 6-8% from 0.5-6 MeV. Required uncertainty for an Accelerator Driven Minor Actinide Burner (ADMAB): 1.5-4 %.
• For many measurements the 237Np(n,f) is a reference cross section that is valuable on account of its low fission threshold and moderate activity.

Accuracy:
Uncertainties of 2-3%

Justification document:
There is a discrepancy of about 6-9% between a recent measurement performed by the n_TOF collaboration and ENDF/B-VII (C. Paradela et al. [3]).
The higher n_TOF values are supported by a validation exercise by Leong et al. [4].
A recent independent result in the energy range from 4.8 to 5.6 MeV yields cross sections that in function of energy first agree with ENDF/B-VII and then with the n_TOF result (M. Diakaki et al. [5]).
Independently an issue was recently found when cross sections for Pu-isotopes referred to the 238U(n,f) cross section were compared to the same cross sections referred to the 237Np(n,f) cross section in the same measurement arrangement (P. Salvador et al. [6]).

Comment from requester:

The request is well motivated and of some concern also to reactor dosimetry when using spectral indices and/or reaction rates of 237Np fission chambers (IRDFF [7]).