JOURNAL OF FUSION ENERGY, vol.32, no.2, pp.304-310, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
The fusion energy is attractive as an energy source because the fusion will not produce CO2 or SO2 and so fusion will not contribute to environmental problems, such as particulate pollution and excessive CO2 in the atmosphere. The fusion reaction does not produce radioactive nuclides and it is not self-sustaining, as is a fission reaction when a critical mass of fissionable material is assembled. Since the fusion reaction is easily and quickly quenched the primary sources of heat to drive such an accident are heat from radioactive decay and heat from chemical reactions. Both the magnitude and time dependence of the generation of heat from radioactive decay can be controlled by proper selection and design of materials. Tantalum is one of the candidate materials for the first wall of fusion reactors and for component parts of irradiation chambers. Accurate experimental cross-section data of alpha induced reactions on Tantalum are also of great importance for thermonuclear reaction rate determinations since the models used in the study of stellar nucleosynthesis are strongly dependent on these rates (Santos et al. in J Phys G 26:301, 2000). In this study, neutron-production cross sections for target nuclei Ta-181 have been investigated up to 100 MeV alpha energy. The excitation functions for (alpha, xn) reactions (x = 1, 2, 3) have been calculated by pre-equilibrium reaction mechanism. And also neutron emission spectra for Ta-181 (alpha, xn) reactions at 26.8 and 45.2 MeV have been calculated. The mean free path multiplier parameters has been investigated. The pre-equilibrium results have been calculated by using the hybrid model, the geometry dependent hybrid (GDH) model. Calculation results have been also compared with the available measurements in literature.