Evaluation of Neutron Cross Sections for a Complete Set of Nd Isotopes

Neutron cross sections for a complete set of Nd isotopes, ^{142,143,144,145,146,147,148,150}Nd, were evaluated in the incident energy range from 10^-5 eV to 20 MeV. In the low-energy region, including thermal and resolved resonances, our evaluations are based on the latest data published in the Atlas of Neutron Resonances, Fifth Edition: Resonance Parameters and Thermal Cross Sections, Z = 1 - 100. In the unresolved resonance region, we performed additional evaluation by using the averages of the resolved resonances and adjusting them to the experimental data. In the fast neutron region, we used the nuclear reaction model code EMPIRE-2.19 validated against the experimental data. The results are compared to the existing nuclear data libraries, including ENDF/B-VI.8, JENDL-3.3, and JEFF-3.1, and to the available experimental data. The new evaluations are suitable for neutron transport calculations, and they were adopted by the new U.S. evaluated nuclear data ENDF/B-VII.0, released in December 2006.