9Be plays a central role in fusion technology and in material testing reactor (MTR) as a neutron source moderator. However, existing nuclear data for neutron scattering on 9Be exhibit significant uncertainties, particularly in the 1.5-15 MeV energy range. In order to provide high quality data for improving nuclear reaction models and evaluated nuclear data libraries, an experiment to measure the elastic and inelastic scattering of neutrons on a 9Be target was proposed and accepted at the Neutrons For Science (NFS) facility. Neutrons will be measured using the recently developed VErsatile Neutron DETector Array (VENDETA), formed of high-resolution time-of-flight detectors which combine excellent neutron/gamma discrimination and efficiency down to 100 keV. The experiment will employ the quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams available at NFS from the p+7Li reaction, enabling a systematic investigation of scattering observables as a function of incident neutron energy.
The chosen candidate will lead the analysis to extract angular differential cross sections for both elastic and inelastic channels as a function of the incoming neutron energy. The data will have a direct impact on applications in nuclear energy and shielding design, while their interpretation in terms of partial decay width to the elastic and inelastic channels will improve our understanding of 9Be and 10Be nuclear structure.