Abstract Data on the cross section of nuclear reactions are important for the development of nuclear energy, thermonuclear fusion, nuclear medicine, materials research, and other applications. The cross sections of nuclear reactions important for fusion applications, including radiation testing of materials and the development of neutron-free fusion power, were measured. The study was conducted on a accelerator-based neutron source at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, which produces a monoenergetic beam of protons or deuterons with an energy of up to 2.2 MeV. The intensity and energy of reaction products emitted from a lithium or boron target are measured using an α-spectrometer and a diamond detector. It has been shown that the measured cross sections of nuclear reactions make it possible to recover the energy spectrum of neutrons generated during the interaction of deuterons with lithium-7, one of the most productive neutron-generation reactions. It is shown that the obtained value of the cross section of the reaction of interaction of a proton beam with boron-11 in resonance is half the value often used in assessing the prospects of neutron-free thermonuclear energy.
Bikchurina et al. (Sun,) studied this question.