Validation of capture reactions cross sections in Cf(s.f.) neutron field.

We have investigated following capture reactions: Au(n,g)Au, Cu(n,g)Cu, Sc(n,g)Sc, Ta(n,g)Ta, Ce(n,g)Ce, La(n,g)La, Yb(n,g)Yb, Mn(n,g)Mn, and Pr(n,g)Pr in a standard Cf(s.f.) neutron field. The experimentally derived reaction rates were compared with calculations using state-of-the-art libraries IRDFF-II, ENDF/B-VIII.0, JENDL-5 and JEFF-3.3 performed in MCNP6.2 transport code. The experiment was focused on capture reactions in high energy neutron range. To suppress scattered low energy neutrons, all activation materials were enclosed by a spherical cadmium surface of 30 cm in diameter. Experimentally derived reaction rates of Au(n,g)Au, Cu(n,g)Cu reactions agree with calculations using all state-of-the-art nuclear data libraries. The highest discrepancies were found when evaluating La(n,g)La and Mn(n,g)Mn reactions utilizing all libraries. Experimental reaction rates applying data from the JENDL-5 library agree very well with the results of other reactions except for the Sc(n,g)Sc reaction. Ta(n,g)Ta reaction rate does not agree within uncertainties using any library. The Yb(n,g)Yb reaction rate agrees reasonably well only when performing calculation using JENDL-5 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 libraries, unlike JEFF-3.3 library. Ce(n,g)Ce and Pr(n,g)Pr reaction rates applying JEFF-3.3 and ENDF/B-VIII.0 libraries do not agree within uncertainties.