Speaker
Description
Fission product yields (FPY) are an important observable for fundamental and applied nuclear physics. We are conducting a comprehensive study of the cumulative FPY from neutron-induced fission of $^{235}$U, $^{238}$U, and $^{239}$Pu between 0.5 and 15 MeV at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. Actinide foils are irradiated using monoenergetic neutron beams produced by a tandem accelerator. The activation foils are placed in a dual fission chamber with thin reference foils of the same isotope to determine the total number of induced fission events in the target. Fission products in the sample are identified following gamma-ray spectra measurements with high-purity germanium detectors in a low-background counting facility. Gamma rays from decay of about 40 fission products with half-lives between 10 minutes and a few days have been measured after 1 hour of irradiation. Details of the experiment setup and preliminary results for FPY at a neutron energy of 6.5 MeV will be presented.
This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.