https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/i2012-12029-2
Tools for Experiment and Theory
Simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission reactions at CERN
1
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
2
Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Technológicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain
3
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/IN2P3 - IPN, Orsay, France
4
Uniwersytet Łódzki, Lodz, Poland
5
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
6
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trieste, Italy
7
Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA) Saclay - Irfu, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
8
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
9
Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear (ITN), Lisbon, Portugal
10
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Bari, Italy
11
Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain
12
Physik Department E12 and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
13
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany
14
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
15
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, India
16
Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC-Universidad de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
17
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Legnaro, Italy
18
Atominstitut, Technische Universität Wien, Wien, Austria
19
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Campus Nord, Institut für Kernphysik, Karlsruhe, Germany
20
University of Vienna, Faculty of Physics, Vienna, Austria
21
Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
22
Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l’energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
23
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
24
Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, IFIN HH, Bucharest, Magurele, Romania
25
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens, Greece
26
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
27
University of York, York, UK
28
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
* e-mail: carlos.guerrero@cern.ch
Received:
21
December
2011
Accepted:
14
February
2012
Published online:
12
March
2012
The measurement of the capture cross-section of fissile elements, of utmost importance for the design of innovative nuclear reactors and the management of nuclear waste, faces particular difficulties related to the -ray background generated in the competing fission reactions. At the CERN neutron time-of-flight facility n_TOF we have combined the Total Absorption Calorimeter (TAC) capture detector with a set of three 235U loaded MicroMegas (MGAS) fission detectors for measuring simultaneously two reactions: capture and fission. The results presented here include the determination of the three detection efficiencies involved in the process:
,
and
. In the test measurement we have succeeded in measuring simultaneously with a high total efficiency the 235U capture and fission cross-sections, disentangling accurately the two types of reactions. The work presented here proves that accurate capture cross-section measurements of fissile isotopes are feasible at n_TOF.
© SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2012