Measurement of Fragment Mass Yields in Neutron-induced Fission of (232)Th and (238)U at 33, 45 and 60 MeV

• Incineration of spent nuclear fuel in Accelerator Driven Systems requires nuclear data on neutron-induced fission of actinides at energies above 20 MeV - the upper limit of conventional evaluated nuclear data files. Over the past years, a significant effort has been devoted to measurements of neutron-induced fission cross-sections at intermediate energies but there is a lack of experimental data on fission yields. Here we describe recent measurements of pre-neutron emission fragment mass distributions from intermediate energy neutron-induced fission of (232)Th and (238)U. The measurements have been carried out at the neutron beam of the Louvain-la-Neuve cyclotron facility CYCLONE. Quasi-monoenergetic neutrons with peak energies at 32.8, 45.3 and 59.9 MeV were produced by protons impinging on a thin lithium target. A multi-section Frisch-gridded ionization chamber was used as a fission fragment detector. The measurement results are compared with available experimental data as well as with predictions of the multi-modal random neck-rupture model implemented into the TALYS code.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

ADS

Neutron-induced fission

Fission fragment mass yield

Intermediate energy

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)