Exploratory study of fission product yields of neutron-induced fission of U 235, U 238, and Pu 239 at 8.9 MeV EXPLORATORY STUDY of FISSION PRODUCT YIELDS ... C. BHATIA et al.

Using dual-fission chambers each loaded with a thick (200-400-mg/cm2) actinide target of 235,238U or Pu239 and two thin (∼10-100-μg/cm2) reference foils of the same actinide, the cumulative yields of fission products ranging from Sr92 to Nd147 have been measured at En=8.9MeV. The H2(d,n)He3 reaction provided the quasimonoenergetic neutron beam. The experimental setup and methods used to determine the fission product yield (FPY) are described, and results for typically eight high-yield fission products are presented. Our FPYs for U235(n,f), U238(n,f), and Pu239(n,f) at 8.9 MeV are compared with the existing data below 8 MeV from Glendenin et al. [Phys. Rev. C 24, 2600 (1981)10.1103/PhysRevC.24.2600], Nagy et al. [Phys. Rev. C 17, 163 (1978)10.1103/PhysRevC.17.163], Gindler et al. [Phys. Rev. C 27, 2058 (1983)10.1103/PhysRevC.27.2058], and those of Mac Innes et al. [Nucl. Data Sheets 112, 3135 (2011)10.1016/j.nds.2011.11.009] and Laurec et al. [Nucl. Data Sheets 111, 2965 (2010)10.1016/j.nds.2010.11.004] at 14.5 and 14.7 MeV, respectively. This comparison indicates a negative slope for the energy dependence of most fission product yields obtained from U235 and Pu239, whereas for U238 the slope issue remains unsettled.

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