Validation of SiO2 neutron cross sections for asteroid deflection purposes.

The asteroid impacts can be devastating for the life on the Earth. Thus, mitigation of this unwanted event is of crucial importance, and nuclear devices are state-of-the-art choice. The presented paper focuses on nuclear data validation of silicon and oxygen. Nuclear data validation is an essential task because nuclear data are the deciding factor for energy deposition profiles, which serve as input for subsequent hydrodynamic simulation, thus directly affecting the description of asteroid deflection. The silicon and oxygen in the form of silicate materials are abundant in asteroids. The set of neutron and gamma transport experiments using a primary neutron standard 252Cf neutron source was performed. The fast neutron spectrum in the energy range of 2–10 MeV was measured using a stilbene detector. The best agreement for fast neutron leakage spectra was reached using INDEN evaluation for 28Si and ENDF/B-VIII.0 16O evaluation. Activation foils sensitive in different energy ranges were utilized. The results depend on the examined reaction and distance from the source. Finally, the prompt gamma rays from capture and inelastic scattering were measured by an HPGe detector. With the exception of 28Si(n,n′) 1779 keV peak, other prompt gamma production peaks show significant discrepancies. The calculations for comparisons of different transport libraries were performed using Monte Carlo MCNP6.2 code. The results show the necessity of further improvement of evaluations for oxygen and silicon. • Energy deposition profile highly depends on used transport library. • Effect of different transport libraries on calculations. • Measurement of leakage neutron spectra from sand cylinder • Measurement of reaction rates of activated materials. • Measurement of prompt gammas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]