Eur. Phys. J. A (2011) 47: 2
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2011-11002-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Neutron-induced fission cross-section of ²³³U in the energy range 0.5 < E_n < 20 MeV

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Trieste, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy
³ CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
⁴ Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Bari, Italy
⁵ CEA, Irfu, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁶ Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain
⁷ Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Technologicas, Madrid, Spain
⁸ University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
⁹ Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus Nord, Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruhe, Germany
¹⁰ Atominstitut der Österreichischen Universitäten, Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria
¹¹ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/IN2P3 - IReS, Strasbourg, France
¹² Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
¹³ Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
¹⁴ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), NAPC/Nuclear Data Section, Vienna, Austria
¹⁵ Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
¹⁶ Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear (ITN), Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁷ LIP - Coimbra and Departamento de Fisica da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
¹⁸ University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA
¹⁹ Instituto de Fısica Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
²⁰ Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
²¹ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Dubna, Russia
²² Institute of Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Russia
²³ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/IN2P3 - CENBG, Bordeaux, France
²⁴ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
²⁵ Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
²⁶ University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
²⁷ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Physics Division, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
²⁸ NCSR, Athens, Greece
²⁹ Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
³⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna and Sezione INFN di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
³¹ National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece
³² Institut für Fakultät für Physik, Universität Wien, Wien, Austria
³³ Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci, Paris La Défense, France
³⁴ CEC-JRC-IRMM, Geel, Belgium
³⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
³⁶ ENEA, Bologna, Italy
³⁷ Università degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
³⁸ Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/IN2P3 - IPN, Orsay, France

Received: 9 September 2010
Revised: 10 November 2010
Accepted: 25 November 2010
Published online: 6 January 2011

Abstract

The neutron-induced fission cross-section of ²³³U has been measured at the CERN n_TOF facility relative to the standard fission cross-section of ²³⁵U between 0.5 and 20MeV. The experiment was performed with a fast ionization chamber for the detection of the fission fragments and to discriminate against -particles from the natural radioactivity of the samples. The high instantaneous flux and the low background of the n_TOF facility result in data with uncertainties of 3% , which were found in good agreement with previous experiments. The high quality of the present results allows to improve the evaluation of the ²³³U (n,f) cross-section and, consequently, the design of energy systems based on the Th/U cycle.