The neutron-induced fission cross section of 237 Np was experimentally determined at the high-resolution and high-intensity facility n TOF, at CERN, in the energy range 100 keV to 9 MeV, using the 235 U(n,f) and 238 U(n,f) cross section standards below and above 2 MeV, respectively. A fast ionization chamber was used in order to detect the fission fragments from the reactions and the targets were characterized as far as their mass and homogeneity are concerned by means of α spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy respectively. Theoretical calculations within the Hauser-Feshbach formalism have been performed, employing the EMPIRE code, and the model parameters were tuned in order to successfully reproduce the experimental fission cross-sectional data and simultaneously all the competing reaction channels.

The neutron-induced fission cross section of 234 U has been measured at the CERN n_TOF facility relative to the standard fission cross section of 235 U from 20 keV to 1.4 MeV and of 238 U from 1.4 to 200 MeV. A fast ionization chamber (FIC) was used as a fission fragment detector with a detection efficiency of no less than 97%. The high instantaneous flux and the low background characterizing the n_TOF facility resulted in wide-energy-range data (0.02 to 200 MeV), with high energy resolution, high statistics, and systematic uncertainties bellow 3%. Previous investigations around the energy of the fission threshold revealed structures attributed to β-vibrational levels, which have been confirmed by the present measurements. Theoretical calculations have been performed, employing the TALYS code with model parameters tuned to fairly reproduce the experimental data.

Optical model potentials with various forms of energy-dependent geometry have been considered for the description of '60+~0 elastic scattering. It is sho~n that the variation with energy of the imaginary radius leads to a reasonable fit of the cross-section data, throughout the energy range.Elastic scattering of ' 0+' 0 ions has revealed the existence of energy-dependent structures at energies above the Coulomb barrier. Phenomenologically their gross properties have been investigated in terms of shallow, weakly absorbing potentials' with l-dependent imaginary parts and re-