EVALUATION OF NEUTRON INELASTIC-SCATTERING FOR RADIOISOTOPE PRODUCTION

A systematic study of the production of Sn-117m, Sn-119m and Pt-195m i n the hydraulic tube facility (HT) of the ORNL High Flux Isotope React or (HFIR) has demonstrated that in all three cases the yields from neu tron inelastic scattering ((A)Z[n,n'] (Am)Z) were higher than yields o btained from neutron capture reactions (((A-1))Z[n,gamma](Am)Z). The c orresponding fission-averaged cross-sections were 222 +/- 16, 168 +/- 12 and 287 +/- 20 mb, respectively. The relative gains in the specific activity were 1.4 for Pt-195m, 3.3 for Sn-117m and 4.4 for Sn-119. Th e larger gain for Sn-119 could be attributed to the relatively lower e xcitation energy (89.5 keV) of this metastable nucleus. As a part of t hese studies, the thermal neutron capture cross-sections and resonance integrals for the above reactions and the cross-sections for the [n,2 n] reactions leading to the above nuclides were also evaluated. (C) 19 97 Elsevier Science Ltd.