UC Berkeley

This dissertation includes two works of the Tri-laboratory Effort in Nuclear Data (TREND), a collaboration among Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory that undertakes the challenges in accelerator-based isotope production. The experiments include the continuation of a long-standing campaign of cross section measurements via stacked-target irradiations, and a venture into the realm of in-beam y-ray spectroscopy, rarely employed in the field of isotope production.Motivated by the demand of 103Pd for brachytherapy, characterization of the nat Ag(p,x) reactions between incident proton energy of 40 MeV and 200 MeV was performed. The experimental methods and results of stacked-target irradiations on targets of silver, copper, and nickel are discussed, with an additional focus on the underlying complications in secondary-particle-induced reactions and the usage of monitor reactions. Experimental measurements made were used to further the data evaluation methodologies developed by the TREND collaboration via the investigation of parameterized charged-particle reaction modeling with TALYS-2.0.To address the need for 202gPb of the geochronology community, the TREND collaboration pivoted to the experimental techniques of in-beam y-ray spectroscopy at the 88-Inch Cyclotron of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. With a long half-life and no observable y-ray emission following electron capture decay, the quantification of 202gPb production was not possible through activation analysis. This work provides the first ever direct measurement of the nat Tl (p,x) 202gPb reaction at proton energies 30 and 50 MeV. New insights into the structure of 202Pb and additional measurements of y-ray production cross sections in lead isotopes with 198 ≤A < 203 provided an unique opportunity in the exploration of effects of angular momentum in level density modeling, where conclusions suggested that the overestimation of the widths of angular momentum distributions could be masked by manipulations to the optical model potential.