Eur. Phys. J. A (2011) 47: 160
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2011-11160-x

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Measurement of the neutron-induced fission cross-section of ²⁴³Am relative to ²³⁵U from 0.5 to 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, Galicia, Spain
⁷ Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Technologicas, Madrid, Spain
⁸ University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland
⁹ Campus Nord, Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 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 & Departamento de Fisica da Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
¹⁸ University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA
¹⁹ Instituto de Física 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, New Mexico, USA
²⁵ Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
²⁶ University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
²⁷ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, USA
²⁸ NCSR, Athens, Greece
²⁹ Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
³⁰ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, 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

^* e-mail: paolo.milazzo@ts.infn.it

Received: 5 July 2011
Revised: 7 December 2011
Accepted: 7 December 2011
Published online: 22 December 2011

Abstract

The ratio of the neutron-induced fission cross-sections of ²⁴³Am and ²³⁵U was measured in the energy range from 0.5 to 20 MeV with uncertainties of ≈ 4%. The experiment was performed at the CERN n_TOF facility using a fast ionization chamber. With the good counting statistics that could be achieved thanks to the high instantaneous flux and the low backgrounds, the present results are useful for resolving discrepancies in previous data sets and are important for future reactors with improved fuel burn-up.