Benchmarking of thorium-232 evaluations against spherical transmission and (n,xn) reaction experimental data

Abstract

Abstract. The neutron leakage spectra from a thorium sphere of 26 cm outer and 6 cm inner diameters with a central T-D and 252 Cf neutron sources measured at the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering as well as available in the literature measured differential cross sections for Th(n,xn) reaction at 14 MeV were used for benchmarking of the evaluated cross sections from ENDF (versions B-VII.0 and B-VI.8), JEFF-3.1 and Maslov'07 libraries. It was finally concluded that while it is difficult to prefer any of these libraries relying on spherical benchmarks validation results, Th(n,xn) differential cross sections are certainly better reproduced by ENDF/B-VII.