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.
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Authors
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Devin Connolly
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Kristina Montoya
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Colorado School of Mines
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Dana L. Duke
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Uwe Greife
Colorado School of Mines
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Walter Loveland
Oregon State University, Oregon State Univ
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Shea Mosby
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Christopher Prokop
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Kyle Schmitt
Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Jack Winkelbauer
Los Alamos National Laboratory