Neutron activation for precise nuclear data

Techniques for extracting neutron flux parameters pertaining to the irradiation positions and nuclear data pertaining to the isotopes concemed from measured reaction rates have been developed. An adjustment procedure based on the generalized least squares method with incorporates the, evaluated literature nuclear data, estimates of flux parameters and the experimentally measured reaction rates using high resolution -ray spectrometry is applied. More precise values of the nuclear data, i.e., thermal neutron cross sections, resonance integrals and -ray emission probabilities are thus generated. The irradiation of a multi-element standard (MES) containing 24 elements is carried out in six diffieret positions in two diverse types of reactor in the UK and Russia. It is shown that the improvement in nuclear data is revelaed in moire than 90% of the cases.