Energy Dependence of Fission Product Yields

ORAL

Abstract

Under a joint collaboration between TUNL-LANL-LLNL, a set of absolute fission product yield measurements has been performed. The energy dependence of a number of cumulative fission product yields (FPY) have been measured using quasi-monoenergetic neutron beams for three actinide targets, $^{\mathrm{235}}$U, $^{\mathrm{238}}$U and $^{\mathrm{239}}$Pu, between 0.5 and 14.8 MeV. The FPYs were measured by a combination of fission counting using specially designed dual-fission chambers and $\gamma $-ray counting. Each dual-fission chamber is a back-to-back ionization chamber encasing an activation target in the center with thin deposits of the same target isotope in each chamber. This method allows for the direct measurement of the total number of fissions in the activation target with no reference to the fission cross-section, thus reducing uncertainties. Reported are absolute cumulative fission product yields for incident neutron energies of 0.5, 1.37, 2.4, 3.6, 4.6 and 14.8 MeV. New data in the second chance fission region of 5.5 -- 11 MeV are included to complete the measurements in the energy range of interest. These results are compared to previous measurements and theoretical estimates.

*This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Triad National Security, LLC under contract DE- 89233218CNA000001.

Authors

  • Matthew Gooden

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Todd Bredeweg

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • David Vieira

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Jerry Wilhelmy

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Anton Tonchev

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Jack Silano

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Mark Stoyer

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • Sean Finch

    • Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory/Duke University
  • Werner Tornow

    • Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory/Duke University