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Fission product mass yields from fast neutron-induced fission of $^{237}\mathrm{Np}$

ORAL

Abstract

$^{237}\mathrm{Np}$ is produced in significant quantities in the nuclear fuel cycle. Its presence in spent reactor fuel coupled with its $\sim 2\times10^6$ year half life make a complete and precise understanding of its nature critical to reactor design, particularly that of fast reactors. Although the fission cross section of $^{237}\mathrm{Np}$ has been measured for a wide range of incident neutron energies, little total kinetic energy (TKE) data exists for $^{237}\mathrm{Np}(n,f)$, and there are no TKE nor mass yield data for incident neutron energies above $E_n = 5.55$MeV. Measurements of the TKE of correlated fission fragments from $^{237}\mathrm{Np}(n,f)$ at incident neutron energies from $E_n = 0.5 - 40$MeV have been performed at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center Weapons Neutron Research facility using using a twin Frisch-gridded ionization chamber and a thin-backed $^{237}\mathrm{Np}$ target. Fission mass yields have been extracted from the data using the double energy method. In this talk, experimental methods, analysis techniques and preliminary results will be discussed.

Authors

  • Devin Connolly

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Kristina Montoya

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines

  • Dana L. Duke

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Uwe Greife

    Colorado School of Mines

  • Walter Loveland

    Oregon State University, Oregon State Univ

  • Shea Mosby

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Christopher Prokop

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Kyle Schmitt

    Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Jack Winkelbauer

    Los Alamos National Laboratory