Book Description

The average[sup 235]U neutron total cross sections were obtained in the energy range 2 keV to 330 keV from high-resolution transmission measurements of a 0.033 atom/b sample. The experimental data were corrected for the contribution of isotope impurities and for resonance self-shielding effects in the sample. The results are in very good agreement with the experimental data of Poenitz et al. in the energy range 40 keV to 330 keV and are the only available accurate experimental data in the energy range 2 keV to 40 keV. ENDF/B-VI evaluated data are 1.7% larger. The SAMMY/FITACS code was used for a statistical model analysis of the total cross section, selected fission cross sections and[alpha] data in the energy range 2 keV to 200 keV. SAMMY/FITACS is an extended version of SAMMY which allows consistent analysis of the experimental data in the resolved and unresolved resonance region. The Reich-Moore resonance parameters were obtained from a SAMMY Bayesian fits of high resolution experimental neutron transmission and partial cross section data below 2.25 keV, and the corresponding average parameters and covariance data were used in the present work as input for the statistical model analysis of the high energy range of the experimental data. The result of the analysis shows that the average resonance parameters obtained from the analysis of the unresolved resonance region are consistent with those obtained in the resolved energy region. Another important result is that ENDF/B-VI capture cross section could be too small by more than 10% in the energy range 10 keV to 200 keV.