Simultaneous measurement of neutron-induced capture and fission reactions at CERN

C. Guerrero; E. Berthoumieux; D. Cano-Ott; E. Mendoza; S. Andriamonje; J. Andrzejewski; L. Audouin; M. Barbagallo; V. Bécares; F. Bečvář; F. Belloni; J. Billowes; M. Brugger; M. Calviani; F. Calviño; C. Carrapiço; F. Cerutti; E. Chiaveri; M. Chin; N. Colonna; G. Cortés; M. A. Cortés-Giraldo; M. Diakaki; I. Dillmann; C. Domingo-Pardo; I. Duran; C. Eleftheriadis; M. Fernández-Ordóñez; A. Ferrari; S. Ganesan; G. Giubrone; M. B. Gómez-Hornillos; I. F. Gonçalves; E. González-Romero; F. Gramegna; E. Griesmayer; F. Gunsing; D. Jenkins; E. Jericha; Y. Kadi; F. Käppeler; D. Karadimos; J. Kroll; M. Krtička; E. Lebbos; C. Lederer; H. Leeb; R. Losito; M. Lozano; A. Manousos; J. Marganiec; S. Marrone; T. Martinez; C. Massimi; P. F. Mastinu; M. Meaze; A. Mengoni; P. M. Milazzo; C. Paradela; A. Pavlik; J. Perkowski; R. Plag; J. Praena; J. M. Quesada; T. Rauscher; R. Reifarth; F. Roman; C. Rubbia; R. Sarmento; G. Tagliente; J. L. Tain; D. Tarrío; L. Tassan-Got; A. Tsinganis; G. Vannini; V. Variale; P. Vaz; A. Ventura; M. Vermeullen; V. Vlachoudis; R. Vlastou; A. Wallner; T. Ware; C. Weiß; T. Wright

doi:10.1140/epja/i2012-12029-2

2021 Impact factor 3.131

Hadrons and Nuclei

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. A (2012) 48: 29
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

C. Guerrero¹^,2^*, E. Berthoumieux¹^,7, D. Cano-Ott², E. Mendoza², S. Andriamonje¹, J. Andrzejewski⁴, L. Audouin³, M. Barbagallo¹⁰, V. Bécares², F. Bečvář⁵, F. Belloni⁶, J. Billowes²⁶, M. Brugger¹, M. Calviani¹, F. Calviño⁸, C. Carrapiço⁹, F. Cerutti¹, E. Chiaveri¹, M. Chin¹, N. Colonna¹⁰, G. Cortés⁸, M. A. Cortés-Giraldo¹¹, M. Diakaki²⁵, I. Dillmann¹², C. Domingo-Pardo¹³, I. Duran¹⁴, C. Eleftheriadis²⁸, M. Fernández-Ordóñez², A. Ferrari¹, S. Ganesan¹⁵, G. Giubrone¹⁶, M. B. Gómez-Hornillos⁸, I. F. Gonçalves⁹, E. González-Romero², F. Gramegna¹⁷, E. Griesmayer¹⁸, F. Gunsing⁷, D. Jenkins²⁷, E. Jericha¹⁸, Y. Kadi¹, F. Käppeler¹⁸, D. Karadimos²⁵, J. Kroll⁵, M. Krtička⁵, E. Lebbos¹, C. Lederer²⁰, H. Leeb¹⁸, R. Losito¹, M. Lozano¹¹, A. Manousos²⁸, J. Marganiec², S. Marrone¹⁰, T. Martinez², C. Massimi²¹, P. F. Mastinu¹⁷, M. Meaze¹⁰, A. Mengoni²², P. M. Milazzo⁶, C. Paradela¹⁴, A. Pavlik²⁰, J. Perkowski⁴, R. Plag¹³, J. Praena¹¹, J. M. Quesada¹¹, T. Rauscher²³, R. Reifarth¹³, F. Roman¹^,24, C. Rubbia¹, R. Sarmento⁹, G. Tagliente¹⁰, J. L. Tain¹⁶, D. Tarrío¹⁴, L. Tassan-Got³, A. Tsinganis²⁵^,1, G. Vannini²¹, V. Variale¹⁰, P. Vaz⁹, A. Ventura²², M. Vermeullen²⁷, V. Vlachoudis¹, R. Vlastou²⁵, A. Wallner²⁰, T. Ware²⁶, C. Weiß¹⁸ and T. Wright²⁶

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

Abstract

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.