Transmission and capture cross section measurements by the time-of-flight technique for validation of pile-oscillation experiments in the MINERVE reactorŠalamon, Lino (Avtor) Snoj, Luka (Mentor) neutron induced reactionstime-of-flighttransmissioncapture yieldReich-Moore analysissilver isotopesThis work presents the feasibility study of transmission measurements with the MINERVE samples at the time-of-flight facility GELINA (EC-JRC Geel, Belgium) for characterization of samples with the Neutron Resonance Transmission Analysis (NRTA). This method was used to explain the differences between calculated and experimental reactivity worth values for several nuclides from the MINERVE experimental programs (MINERVE reactor, CEA Cadarache, France). The main idea was to define procedures to analyze results of transmission measurements using cylindrical samples which do not fulfil the ideal transmission geometry. Capability of extracting reliable results was demonstrated on the example of MINERVE samples enriched in silver. In addition, transmission and capture measurements with standard discs of natural silver were performed to improve the resonance parameters for $^{107}$Ag and $^{109}$Ag below 1 keV. Improved silver parameters were then used for verification of the MINERVE composition. A good agreement between NRTA results and sample composition given by chemical analysis was obtained for the major nuclides ($^{238}$U, $^{107}$Ag and $^{109}$Ag). In addition, contamination with tungsten, not reported before, was discovered. Presence of tungsten highly contributes to integral calculations and has to be included in calculations. The main steps in this work are performance of the experiments, the data reduction of measured count rate spectra to produce final transmission and capture yield spectra and the spectra analysis with the resonance shape analysis code REFIT. An analytical model, validated with the Monte-Carlo simulations, was developed to account for MINERVE geometry.20192019-06-26 09:25:41Doktorsko delo/naloga108292sl