Study of Activation Cross Sections of Proton Induced Reactions on Natba and Natce Near Their Threshold Energy Regions

Activation cross-sections of the nuclear reactions Ba-nat(p,x)La-135,La-132g, Ba-135m and Ce-nat(p,x)Pr-142,Pr-139,Pr-138m, Ce-141,Ce-139,Ce-137m have been measured experimentally at the MGC-20 cyclotron, Cairo, Egypt, from their respective threshold energies up to about 14.7 MeV. Stacked foil irradiation technique and high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy were used. A comparison between the experimental and theoretical data derived from the nuclear model codes EMPIRE and TALYS (in the form of the TENDL library) was performed. The agreement in the low-energy region is fairly good. Integral yields of the produced radioisotopes were estimated from the present cross-section data and the results are discussed in terms of their production possibilities.