Studying the Role of Nuclear Structure Effects in Neutron-Induced Reactions Using GEANIE at LANSCE

Efforts to model and measure absolute neutron-induced reaction cross sections have for the most part been limited by experimental techniques to neutron energies found in reactors and light-ion fusion reactions (i.e., t(d,n){alpha} etc.). This can in large part be attributed to the difficulty involved in making high-flux mono-energetic neutron beams with E{sub n} > 14 MeV. The result has been a lack of guidance for (n,xnypz{alpha}) reaction modeling for E{sub n} > 1-2 MeV. These limitations become particularly exacerbated in nuclei where structure effects (i.e., near shell closures, high deformation etc.) or fission complicates the models. The GEANIE spectrometer at LANSCE/WNR fills this gap in experimental technique by allowing for efficient measurement of neutron-induced {gamma}-ray partial cross sections over a wide range of incident neutron energies (1 < E{sub n} (MeV) < 250). GEANIE consists of 20 Compton-suppressed and 6 unsuppressed hpGe detectors located at the 60{sup o} right beam line at the LANSCE/WNR spallation source. Eleven of the GEANIE detectors are Low Energy Planar Spectrometers (LEPS) with excellent timing and energy resolution. LANSCE/WNR provides a white source of neutrons through the spallation of a tungsten target with an 800 MeV 2-5 {micro}amp beam of protons. Neutron energy is determined from the time-of-flight technique. Early results from GEANIE [Ber98] highlighted the deficiencies in the modeling of neutron-induced reaction modeling on a {sup 196}Pt target. More recently, measurements on a {sup 92}Mo target have identified {gamma}-rays in over 2 dozen reaction products [Gar00a]. In this paper we will present an overview of several recent results from GEANIE, including data on a {sup 92}Mo and two Actinide ({sup 235}U and {sup 239}Pu) targets. The implications of these results for reaction modeling from low to high (E{sub n} < 250 MeV) energy will be presented and plans for future experiments discussed