Measuring (n,f) cross sections of plutonium nuclei via the surrogate method

Neutron-induced cross section measurements of exotic nuclei provide a significant experimental challenge due to the need for radioactive targets and high neutron fluxes. Over the past few years the surrogate method has been shown to provide a means of indirectly measuring certain neutron-induced cross sections. Recent results benchmarking (p,t-f) and (p,d-f) reactions as surrogates for (n,f) cross section measurements in uranium nuclei show good agreement with literature data [1]. Building on this work, the use of (p,t-f) and (p,d-f) reactions has very recently been extended to surrogate measurements of the poorly established $^{236}$Pu(n,f) and $^{237}$Pu(n,f) cross sections. The experiment was performed at Texas A\&M University using a 30 MeV proton beam from the K150 cyclotron, incident on $^{239}$Pu and $^{235}$U targets. Charged particle-fission and charged particle-$\gamma$ coincidence data were collected using the combined silicon telescope and $\gamma$-ray array: STARLiTe. Preliminary results will be presented. This work was supported by DoE Grant Numbers: DE-FG52-09 NA29454 and DE-FG02-05 ER41379 (UR) and DE-AC52-07 NA27344 (LLNL).\\[4pt] [1] R.O. Hughes $\emph{et al.}$, PRC $\bf{85}$, 024613 (2012).