90 deg.Neutron emission from high energy protons and lead ions on a thin lead target

The neutron emission from a relatively thin lead target bombarded by beams of high energy protons/pions and lead ions was measured at CERN in one of the secondary beam lines of the Super Proton Synchrotron for radiation protection and shielding calculations. Measurements were performed with three different beams: sup 2 sup 0 sup 8 Pb sup 8 sup 2 sup + lead ions at 40 GeV/c per nucleon and 158 GeV/c per nucleon, and 40 GeV/c mixed protons/pions. The neutron yield and spectral fluence per incident ion on target were measured at 90 deg.with respect to beam direction. Monte-Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code were performed for the case of protons and pions and the results found in good agreement with the experimental data. A comparison between simulations and experiment for protons, pions and lead ions have shown that--for such high energy heavy ion beams--a reasonable estimate can be carried out by scaling the result of a Monte-Carlo calculation for protons by the projectile mass number to the power of 0.80-0.84.