Numerous measurements of fission product yields were performed since the discovery of the nuclear fission process. However, more precise and reliable fission product yields are requested. Lack of ...covariance matrices make difficult to use it for specific application purposes such as the propagation uncertainty of decay heat. In this work, we propose to measure independently the fission product mass yields for the whole heavy peak (including the symmetric mass region) for the
233
U
(
n
th
,
f
)
reaction. Both average values and experimental covariance is provided. The fission product mass yields are measured with the LOHENGRIN recoil mass spectrometer of the ILL using an ionization chamber located at the focal plane. A new procedure of data taking has been developed in order to minimize the biases. Concretely several ionic charges and kinetic energy distributions have been measured for each mass. Particular attention has been considered in the monitoring of the target time evolution. Additional corrections were necessary in the symmetry mass region due to contaminants coming from the LOHENGRIN recoil mass spectrometer. A complex Monte Carlo analysis has been developed in order to better propagate all the uncertainties. The fission product mass yields of the
233
U
(
n
th
,
f
)
and its associated covariance matrix has been produced. An overall good agreement has been observed with ENDF/B-VIII.0 in contrast with the JEFF-3.3 evaluation. A precision around 2% for the heavy peak has been measured. The experimental covariance matrix was also computed. In the symmetry mass region, two components were observed in the kinetic energy distribution. One of this component was considered as an artifact and was ruled-out.
Nuclear fission yields are key data for reactor studies, such as spent fuel inventory or decay heat, and for understanding fission process. Despite a significant effort allocated to measure fission ...yields during the last decades, the recent evaluated libraries still need improvements in particular in the reduction of the uncertainties. Moreover, some discrepancies between these libraries must be explained.
Additional measurements provide complementary information and estimations of experimental correlations, and new kinds of measurements enable to test the models used during the nuclear data evaluation process. A common effort by the CEA, the LPSC and the ILL aims at tackling these issues by providing precise measurements of isotopic and isobaric fission yields with the related variance-covariance matrices. Additionally, the experimental program involves a large range of observables requested by the evaluations, such as kinetic energy dependency of isotopic yields and odd-even effect in order to test the sharing of total excitation energy and the spin generation mechanism. Another example is the complete range of isotopic distribution per mass that allows the determination of the charge polarization, which has to be consistent for complementary masses (pre-neutron emission). For instance, this information is the key observable for the evaluation of isotopic yields. Finally, ionic charge distributions are indirect measurements of nanosecond isomeric ratios as a probe of the nuclear de-excitation path in the
(E*, J
,
π
) representation.
Measurements for thermal neutron induced fission of
241
Pu have been carried out at the ILL in Grenoble, using the LOHENGRIN mass spectrometer. Methods, results and comparison to models calculations will be presented corresponding to a status on fission fragments observables reachable with this facility.
The Fission Product Prompt γ-ray Spectrometer, FIPPS, is under development to enable prompt γ-ray spectroscopy correlated with fission fragment identification. This will open new possibilities in the ...study of fission and of nuclear structure of neutron rich nuclei. FIPPS will consist of an array of γ and neutron detectors coupled with a fission fragment filter. The chosen solution for the filter is a Gas Filled Magnet (GFM). Both experimental and modeling work was performed in order to extract the key parameters of such a device and design the future GFM of the FIPPS project. Experiments performed with a GFM behind the LOHENGRIN spectrometer demonstrated the capability of additional beam purification.
At finite temperatures and low densities, nuclei may undergo a phase change similar to a classical liquid-gas phase transition. Temperature is the control parameter while density and pressure are the ...conjugate variables. In the nucleus the difference between the proton and neutron concentrations acts as an additional order parameter, for which the symmetry potential is the conjugate variable. We present experimental results which reveal the N/Z dependence of the phase transition and discuss possible implications of these observations in terms of the Landau free energy description of critical phenomena.
Nuclear fission yields are key parameters to evaluate reactor physics observables, such as fuel inventory, decay heat, spent fuel radiotoxicity, criticality but also for understanding the fission ...process. Despite a significant effort allocated to measure fission yields during the last decades, the recent evaluated libraries still need improvements in particular in the description of the uncertainties with the associated correlations. Additional kinds of measurements provide complementary information in order to test the models used in the nuclear data evaluation. Moreover, some discrepancies between these libraries must be explained. A common effort by the CEA, the LPSC and the ILL aims at tackling these issues by providing precise measurement of isotopic and isobaric fission yields with the related variance-covariance matrices. Nevertheless, the experimental program represents itself a large range of observables requested by the evaluations: isotopic yields, nuclear charge polarization, odd-even effect, isomeric ratio and their dependency with fission fragment kinetic energy as a probe of the nuclear de-excitation path in the (E
*
, J
π
) representation. Measurements for thermal neutron induced fission of
241
Pu have been carried out at the Institut Laue Langevin using the LOHENGRIN mass spectrometer. Experimental program, observables reachable, results and comparison to model calculations are shown.
The neutrons for science (NFS) facility is a component of SPIRAL-2, the new superconducting linear accelerator built at GANIL in Caen (France). The proton and deuteron beams delivered by the ...accelerator will allow producing intense neutron fields in the 100 keV-40 MeV energy range. Continuous and quasi-mono-kinetic energy spectra, respectively, will be available at NFS, produced by the interaction of a deuteron beam on a thick Be converter and by the 7Li(p,n) reaction on thin converter. The pulsed neutron beam, with a flux up to two orders of magnitude higher than those of other existing time-of-flight facilities, will open new opportunities of experiments in fundamental research as well as in nuclear data measurements. In addition to the neutron beam, irradiation stations for neutron-, proton- and deuteron-induced reactions will be available for cross-sections measurements and for the irradiation of electronic devices or biological cells. NFS, whose first experiment is foreseen in 2018, will be a very powerful tool for physics, fundamental research as well as applications like the transmutation of nuclear waste, design of future fission and fusion reactors, nuclear medicine or test and development of new detectors.
Accurate thermal neutron-induced fission data are important for applications in reactor physics as well as for fundamental nuclear physics. FIPPS is the new FIssion Product Prompt γ-ray Spectrometer ...being developed at the Institut Laue Langevin for neutron-induced fission studies. FIPPS is based on the combination of a large Germanium detector array surrounding a fission target, a Time-Of-Flight detector and a Gas-Filled Magnet (GFM) to identify mass, nuclear charge and kinetic energy of one of the fission fragments. The GFM will be instrumented with a Time-Projection Chamber (TPC) for individual 3D tracking of the fragments. A conceptual design study of the new spectrometer is presented.
The neutron attenuation coefficient drops for many solid materials quite drastically at a defined cold neutron energy known as a Bragg-cut-off in the cross-section diagrams. In many cases, the drop ...in attenuation for the corresponding elements is significant and this behavior can be exploited to change the material contrast in radiography and tomography images by modifying the spectrum of the applied neutron beam.
The energy-dependent experiments were performed at the Prompt Gamma-ray Activation beam line where the irradiation position is at the end of a curved neutron guide, which delivers cold neutrons from the spallation source SINQ (PSI, Switzerland). This beam position gave the opportunity to perform radiography and tomography at low neutron energies. An effective monochromatization of the primary neutron beam was obtained by using a neutron velocity selector. The intensity of the modified beam was still reasonable for radiography images at different neutron energies and the experiments were performed in relatively short measuring times.
A variety of samples were studied to illustrate possible applications of energy-selective radiography and tomography. This new neutron imaging technique provided encouraging results and projects of developing permanent facilities for such investigations at PSI and FRM II are under study.
The Neutrons For Science (NFS) facility is a component of SPIRAL-2 laboratory under construction at Caen (France). SPIRAL-2 is dedicated to the production of high intensity Radioactive Ions Beams ...(RIB). It is based on a high-power linear accelerator (LINAG) to accelerate deuterons beams in order to produce neutrons by breakup reactions on a C converter. These neutrons will induce fission in 238U for production of radioactive isotopes. Additionally to the RIB production, the proton and deuteron beams delivered by the accelerator will be used in the NFS facility. NFS is composed of a pulsed neutron beam and irradiation stations for cross-section measurements and material studies. The beams delivered by the LINAG will allow producing intense neutron beams in the 100 keV–40 MeV energy range with either a continuous or quasi-mono-energetic spectrum. At NFS available average fluxes will be up to 2 orders of magnitude higher than those of other existing time-of-flight facilities in the 1 MeV – 40 MeV range. NFS will be a very powerful tool for fundamental physics and application related research in support of the transmutation of nuclear waste, design of future fission and fusion reactors, nuclear medicine or test and development of new detectors. The facility and its characteristics are described, and several examples of the first potential experiments are presented.
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