The development of accelerator driven sub-critical systems (ADSS) require significant amount of new nuclear data in extended energy regions as well as for a variety of new materials. This paper reviews these perspectives in the Indian context.

A beam of 1 GeV proton coming from Dubna Nuclotron colliding with a lead target surrounded by 6 cm paraffin produces spallation neutrons. A Th-foil was kept on lead target (neutron spallation source) in a direct stream of neutrons for activation and other samples of ¹⁹⁷Au, ²⁰⁹Bi, ⁵⁹Co, ¹¹⁵In and ¹⁸¹Ta were irradiated by moderated beam of neutrons passing through 6 cm paraffin moderator. The gamma spectra of irradiated samples were analyzed using gamma spectrometry and DEIMOS software to measure the neutron cross-section. For this purpose neutron fluence at the positions of samples is also estimated using PREPRO software. The results of cross-sections for reactions ²³²Th($n, \gamma$), ²³²Th($n, 2n$), ¹⁹⁷Au($n, \gamma$), ¹⁹⁷Au($n, \alpha$), ¹⁹⁷Au($n, xn$), ⁵⁹Co($n, \alpha$), ⁵⁹Co($n, xn$), ¹⁸¹Ta($n, \gamma$) and ¹⁸¹Ta($n, xn$) are given in this paper. Neutronics validation of the Dubna Cascade Code is also done using cross-section data by other experiments.

The ²³²Th$(n, \gamma)$ reaction cross-section at average neutron energies of 13.5, 15.5 and 17.28 MeV from the ⁷Li$(p, n)$ reaction has been determined for the first time using activation and off-line 𝛾-ray spectrometric technique. The ²³²Th$(n, 2n)$ cross-section at 17.28 MeV neutron energy has also been determined using the same technique. The experimentally determined ²³²Th$(n, \gamma)$ and ²³²Th$(n, 2n)$ reaction cross-sections from the present work were compared with the evaluated data of ENDF/BVII and JENDL-4.0 and were found to be in good agreement. The present data, along with literature data in a wide range of neutron energies, were interpreted in terms of competition between ²³²Th$(n, \gamma)$, $(n, f)$, $(n, nf)$ and $(n, xn)$ reaction channels. The ²³²Th$(n, \gamma)$ and ²³²Th$(n, 2n)$ reaction cross-sections were also calculated theoretically using the TALYS 1.2 computer code and were found to be in good agreement with the experimental data from the present work but were slightly higher than the literature data at lower neutron energies.