Studying the energy dependence of fission product yields in neutron-induced fission of major actinides.

As part of a new evaluation effort, experimental fission product yields from neutron-induced fission of ^238,235U and ^239,241Pu were retrieved and compiled in a dedicated object-oriented database. The fission yields data, which spanned 70 years and were often measured with the activation technique, were corrected using the most up-to-date decay data from the Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF).

The updated set of yields was then used to study the energy dependence of fission yields, a quantity of interest for the understanding of the fission process, as well as for applications (such as nuclear forensics and reactor physics).

Data were compared to the most recent nuclear data library evaluations (JEFF and ENDF/B) and to the GEF (GEneral Fission) model, a phenomenological theoretical model used to simulate fission observables. For direct comparison of experimentally determined cumulative yields and the theoretical data, the GEF independent fission yields were converted to cumulative using the ENDF/B-VIII.0 decay data sublibrary.