Precise measurements of gamma-ray intensities for long-lived fission products

ORAL

Abstract

We recently demonstrated a new experimental approach to precisely determine the gamma-ray intensities following the beta decay of long-lived fission products. For national-security applications, such as stockpile stewardship and nuclear forensics, one of the most straightforward and reliable ways to determine the number of fissions that occurred in a chain reaction is done through detection of the emitted gamma rays. The focus of this talk is on recent measurements to improve the nuclear-decay data for the fission products 95Zr, 144Ce, and 147Nd. Our approach consists of implanting fission-product samples into a thin carbon foil using low-energy mass-separated ion beams from the CARIBU facility and then performing beta counting using a custom-made 4-pi gas proportional counter in coincidence with gamma-ray spectroscopy using the precisely-calibrated HPGe detector at Texas A&M University. Recent results for 95Zr, 144Ce, and 147Nd will be presented and future plans will be discussed.

*This work was supported under Contracts DE-AC52-07NA27344 (LLNL), DE-FG03-93ER40773 (Texas A&M), and DE-AC02-06CH11357 (ANL).

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Presenters

  • Nicolas D Scielzo

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Authors

  • Nicolas D Scielzo

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Lab

  • Kay Kolos

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • LLNL

  • Miguel Bencomo

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Mary T Burkey

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Daniel E Hoff

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • University of Massachusetts Lowell

  • Wei Jia Ong

    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab
    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Mark A Stoyer

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • Anton P Tonchev

    • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
    • Lawrence Livermore Natl Lab

  • John C Hardy

    • Texas A&M University

  • Victor Iacob

    • Texas A&M University

  • Dan G Melconian

    • Texas A&M University
    • Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University

  • Jason A Clark

    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA

  • Daniel Santiago-Gonzalez

    • Argonne National Laboratory
    • Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA

  • Guy Savard

    • Argonne National Laboratory

  • Eric B Norman

    • University of California, Berkeley

  • Rodney Orford

    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
    • LBNL