https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-024-01439-8
Regular Article – Experimental Physics
Measurement of total fission gamma spectrum of 252Cf(s.f.)
1
Centrum Výzkumu Řež s.r.o., Husinec-Řež 130, 250 68, Husinec, Czech Republic
2
Institute for Neutron Physics and Reactor Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
3
Masaryk University, Botanická 15, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic
4
University of Defence, Kounicova 65, 662 10, Brno, Czech Republic
5
International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Data Section, 1400, Wien, Austria
Received:
22
April
2024
Accepted:
25
October
2024
Published online:
21
November
2024
The paper presents a first comprehensive measurement of the total fission gamma spectrum (TFGS) of 252Cf(s.f.) spanning an energy range from 0.2 to 14.3 MeV using stilbene scintillator spectroscopy. The measurement was performed with the 252Cf(s.f.) source placed in a flexo-rabbit ending, with a stilbene detector located at a distance of 100 cm from the source. The room effect was determined by separate measurement with a 50 cm long lead shielding cylinder placed between the source and the detector. The obtained spectrum was corrected for the effect of the 252Cf source structural parts and the flexo-rabbit ending, using correction function obtained by simulation with the MCNP6.2 code. The main benefit of this independent measurement is the wide energy range, from 0.2 up to 14.3 MeV, in a single experiment, whereas existing measurements typically cover narrower intervals. The knowledge of the TFGS is crucial for various applications involving 252Cf(s.f.) sources, including the design and analysis of nuclear systems, the validation of nuclear data, and the estimation of radiation in the nuclear medicine. The comparison of TFGS with the recently evaluated 252Cf(s.f.) prompt fission gamma spectrum (PFGS) indicates that delayed gammas may contribute above 2 MeV up to the highest energies; the current assumption was that delayed gammas contribution above 2 MeV was negligible.
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