Activation Cross Section For The Reaction Na-23(N,P)Ne-23

The absolute reaction cross section for ${\mathrm{Na}}^{23}(n, p){\mathrm{Ne}}^{23}$ has been measured in the range of neutron energies from 3.3 Mev to 8.2 Mev by use of neutrons from the reactions ${\mathrm{H}}^{2}(d, n){\mathrm{He}}^{3}$ and ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}(d, n){\mathrm{O}}^{15}$. The cross section rises from a threshold at about 3.7 Mev to 12 mb at the highest energy studied. Twelve resonances are observed corresponding to excited levels in ${\mathrm{Na}}^{24}$. The region of energy overlap between the neutrons from ${\mathrm{H}}^{2}(d, n){\mathrm{He}}^{3}$ and ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}(d, n){\mathrm{O}}^{15}$ gives values of the ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}(d, n){\mathrm{O}}^{15}$ cross section which are in rough agreement with those previously measured elsewhere. Over-all accuracy is estimated to be \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}20% for ${\mathrm{H}}^{2}(d, n){\mathrm{He}}^{3}$ data, and \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}50% for ${\mathrm{N}}^{14}(d, n){\mathrm{O}}^{15}$ data.