Fragment Yields from the Fission Reactions ²³²U(n,f) and ²³⁹Pu(n,f)

Abstract

The distribution of fission fragment masses, charges and kinetic energies from the reactions ²³²U(n,f) and ²³⁹Pu(n,f) induced by thermal neutrons has been investigated with the detector based spectrometer Cosi fan tutte of the ILL in Grenoble. While ²³⁹Pu(n,f) is an already well studied reaction, only few measurements on the thermal neutron reaction ²³²U(n,f) have been done in the past. An especially interesting quantity is the charge odd-even effect which is found to be δ_p = (9.8 ÷− 1.0) % for the reaction ²³⁹Pu(n,f) confirming data obtained at the Lohengrin spectrometer [1]. For ²³²U(n,f) we have measured a pronounced odd — even effect amounting to δp = (20.3 ÷− 1.5) % which is in good agreement with former experiments by Djebara et al. [2]. In addition to the new results from the reaction ²³²U(n,f), in both reactions a quite new effect called “cold deformed fission” [3] has been confirmed.