SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Results for “ACTINIDE NUCLEI”
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Total kinetic energy release in the fast neutron induced fission of actinide nuclei
The total kinetic energy (TKE) release in the fast neutron-induced fission of various actinide nuclei was measured for neutron energies for E n =2.6-100 MeV at the Weapons Neutron Research facility of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The data are compared to the GEF model of the fission process. The variances of the TKE distributions appear to decrease with increasing Z and A of the fissioning systems.
Nonaxial shapes of even–even lantanide and actinide nuclei in excited collective states
Quadrupole-type excited states of even–even nuclei are studied on the basis of arbitrary-triaxiality model. It is shown that the inclusion of high-order terms in the expansion of the rotational-energy operator in the variable γ improves substantially agreement between our theoretical results and respective experimental data. The proposed model makes it possible to explain the intricate character of the spectrum of excited states of even–even lanthanide and actinide nuclei.
Muon-induced fission of actinide nuclei
A negative muon captured by an actinide cascades down through the muonic atomic levels; deeply bound transitions can proceed via inverse internal conversion, depositing the muonic transition energy directly into the nucleus and, when the deposited energy exceeds the fission barrier, inducing prompt fission. Because the muon mean lifetime exceeds the saddle-to-scission timescale by orders of magnitude, the muon can survive the entire fission event as a 1𝑠 spectator and ultimately attach to one or both of the emerging fragments. Its postscission attachment probability to the light fragment, 𝑃 𝐿 , can be used as a direct electromagnetic probe of fission dynamics on a timescale of 10 −21 s. In previous work, we introduced a three-dimensional lattice solution of the time-dependent Dirac equation coupled to the electromagnetic field generated by a fissioning nucleus and reported 𝑃 𝐿 for several actinides at a single dissipation strength. In this work, we extend that framework to a systematic survey of 232 Th , 238 U , and 240 Pu and implement a more realistic fission model which incorporates dynamic pairing correlations. We find that 𝑃 𝐿 falls steeply with the fragment charge asymmetry, a robust structural fingerprint of the fissioning system, while its dependence on nuclear dissipation is secondary and sensitive to the phenomenological friction prescription. These results establish 𝑃 𝐿 as a clean electromagnetic probe of fragment charge asymmetry and motivate a self-consistent, coordinate- and time-dependent treatment of nuclear dissipation as the natural next step.
Total kinetic energy release in the fast neutron induced fission of actinide nuclei
The total kinetic energy release and fission mass distributions for the fast neutron (En = 3–100 MeV) induced fission of 232 Th, 233 U, 235 U, 237 Np, 239 Pu, 240 Pu, and 242 Pu have been measured using the LANSCE facility. The neutron energies were deduced from time-of- flight measurements. The fission fragments were detected using Si PIN diode detectors, giving us the fragment energies. The actinide targets were made by vapor deposition leading to high-quality targets, that were thin and uniform with reduced impurities. Corrections were made to the data for pulse height defect and the fragment energy loss in the target and its backing. The TKE distributions were Gaussian in shape and their mean value as a function of incoming neutron energy could be fitted with second order polynomials. In the case of 233 U and 235 U, our measurements agree with prior work. Our measurements for 232 Th are unique. Our data agree with Viola scaling. The constant position of the heavy mass peak is interpreted as being due to the influence of the N = 88 and Z = 50 shells. The GEF model predictions agree with the data in general as do the CGMF model predictions.
Alternating-parity collective states of yrast and nonyrast bands in lanthanide and actinide nuclei
Excited collective states of even-even nuclei featuring quadrupole and octupole deformations are studied within a nonadiabatic collective model with a Gaussian potential energy. Rotational states of the yrast band and vibrational-rotational states of nonyrast bands are considered in detail. The energies of alternating-parity excited states of the yrast band in the {sup 164}Er, {sup 220}Ra, and {sup 224}Th nuclei; the yrast and first nonyrast bands in the {sup 154}Sm and {sup 160}Gd nuclei; and the yrast, first nonyrast, and second nonyrast bands in the {sup 224}Ra and {sup 240}Pu nuclei are described well on the basis of the proposed model.
Inelastic interactions of fast nucleons with nuclei and fission of nuclei
The cross section for the fission of actinide nuclei that is induced by fast neutrons is considered as a fraction of the cross section for inelastic nucleon interaction with nuclei. In turn, inelastic nucleon interaction with a nucleus is treated as scattering on intranuclear nucleons. It is shown that this interaction model describes satisfactorily the cross section for the inelastic interaction of 60- to 2200-MeV nucleons for a broad set of nuclei and that the energy dependence of the cross section for the fission of actinide nuclei that is induced by 400- to 1000-MeV protons replicates the energy dependence of the cross section for inelastic interactions with respective nuclei. From the model used, it follows that the cross sections for proton-nucleus interactions exceed cross sections for respective neutron-nucleus interactions in the energy range extending up to 550 MeV; at higher energies neutron cross sections are larger than proton cross sections.
Prompt Fission Neutron Spectra of Actinides
No abstract prepared.
Skyrme–Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov mass models on a 3D mesh: IIb. Fission properties of BSkG2
Large-scale models of nuclear structure are currently the only way to provide consistent datasets for the many properties of thousands of exotic nuclei that are required by nucleosynthesis simulations. In [W. Ryssens et al., Eur. Phys. J. A 58, 246 (2022)], we recently presented the new BSkG2 model based on an energy density functional of the Skyrme type. Relying on a flexible three-dimensional coordinate representation of the nucleus, the model takes into account both triaxial deformation and time-reversal symmetry breaking. BSkG2 achieves a state-of-the-art global description of nuclear ground state (g.s.) properties and reproduces in particular the known masses with a root-mean-square (rms) deviation of 678 keV. Moving beyond g.s. properties, the model also reproduces all empirical values for the primary and secondary barriers as well as isomer excitation energies of actinide nuclei with rms deviations below 500 keV, i.e. with unprecedented accuracy. Here we discuss in detail the extension of our framework to the calculation of the fission barriers of 45 actinide nuclei, including odd-mass and odd-odd systems. We focus in particular on the impact of symmetry breaking which is key to the accuracy of the model: we allow systematically for axial, reflection and time-reversal symmetry breaking. The effect of the latter on the fission properties of odd-mass and odd-odd nuclei is small, but we find that allowing for shapes with triaxial or octupole deformation, as well as shapes with both, is crucial to achieving this accuracy. Here, the numerical accuracy of our coordinate space approach, the variety of nuclear configurations explored and the simultaneous successful description of fission properties and known masses makes BSkG2 the tool of choice for the large-scale study of nuclear structure.
Nuclear Data Evaluations of Medium-mass Nuclei and Actinides
Abstract not provided.
Role of dynamical effects in the formation of T-Odd asymmetries for products of polarized-neutron-induced ternary fission of nuclei
Basic dynamical effects that accompany the cold-polarized-neutron-induced binary and ternary fission of actinide nuclei and which determine the properties of T -odd asymmetries in angular distributions of various prescission and evaporated light third particles emitted in true and delayed ternary fission are analyzed on the basis of quantum-mechanical fission theory. It is emphasized that effects associated with the conservation of axial symmetry of the fissioning system under study at all stages of its evolution from the formation of neutron resonance states of the fissile compound nucleus to the separation of its fission fragments, including the appearance of zero wriggling vibrations of the cold compound nucleus in the vicinity of its scission point, are of particular importance, the influence of quantum collective rotation of the polarized fissile system on the asymmetry of the angular distribution of both fission fragments and third particles being taken into account. It is shown that the difference in the behavior of the coefficients characterizing the T -odd asymmetries under analysis for the target nuclei being studied can be explained, upon taking into account the interference between the fission amplitudes for the neutron resonance states of fissile compound nuclei, by the difference in the contributions of even and odd components of the amplitudes of angular distributions of third particles to the coefficients in question.
Octupole deformation in the ground states of even-even Z ∼ 96 , N ∼ 196 actinides and superheavy nuclei
Not Available
Nuclear Structure Research at Richmond
The goals for the final year were; (1) to continue ongoing efforts to develop and enhance GRETINA and work towards GRETA; (2) to investigate the structure of non-yrast states in shape transitional Sm and Gd nuclei; (3) to investigate the structure of selected light Cd nuclei; (4) to exploit the surrogate reaction technique to extract (n,f) cross sections for actinide nuclei, particularly the first measurement of the 236 Pu and 237 Pu(n,f) cross sections.
Nonuniform character of the population of spin projections K for a fissile nucleus at the scission point and anisotropies in the angular distributions of fragments originating from the induced fission of nuclei
It is shown that the emergence of anisotropies in the angular distributions of fragments originating from the spontaneous and induced fission of oriented actinide nuclei is possible only if nonuniformities in the population of the projectionsM (K) of the fissile-nucleus spin onto the z axis of the laboratory frame (fissile-nucleus symmetry axis) appear simultaneously in the vicinity of the scission point but not in the vicinity of the outer saddle point of the deformation potential. The possibilities for creating the orientation of fissile nuclei for spontaneous and induced fission and the effect of these orientations on the anisotropies under analysis are considered. The role of Coriolis interaction as a unique source of the mixing of different-K fissile-nucleus states at all stages of the fission process is studied with allowance for the dynamical enhancement of this interaction for excited thermalized states of the nucleus involved that is characterized by a high energy density. It is shown that the absence of thermalization of excited states of the fissile nucleus that appear because of the effect of nonadiabaticity of its collective deformation motion in the vicinity of the scission point is a condition of conservation of the influence that transition fission states formed at the inner and outer fission barriers exerts on the distribution of the spin projections K for lowenergy spontaneous nuclear fission. It is confirmed that anisotropies observed in the angular distributions of fragments originating from the fission of nuclei that is induced by fast light particles (multiply charged ions) are due to the appearance of strongly excited equilibrium(nonequilibrium) states of the fissile nucleus in the vicinity of its scission point that have a Gibbs (non-Gibbs) distribution of projections K.
Towards the island of stability with relativistic energy density functionals
Relativistic energy density functionals (REDF) provide a complete and accurate, global description of nuclear structure phenomena. Modern semi-empirical functionals, adjusted to the nuclear matter equation of state and to empirical masses of deformed nuclei, are applied to studies of shapes of superheavy nuclei. The theoretical framework is tested in a comparison to empirical masses, quadrupole deformations, and energy barriers of actinide nuclei. The model is used in a self-consistent mean-field calculation of spherical, axial and triaxial shapes of superheavy nuclei, alpha-decay energies and lifetimes. The effect of explicit treatment of collective correlations is analyzed in calculations that consistently use a collective Hamiltonian model based on REDFs.
The CCONE Code System and its Application to Nuclear Data Evaluation for Fission and Other Reactions
A computer code system, CCONE, was developed for nuclear data evaluation within the JENDL project. The CCONE code system integrates various nuclear reaction models needed to describe nucleon, light charged nuclei up to alpha-particle and photon induced reactions. The code is written in the C++ programming language using an object-oriented technology. At first, it was applied to neutron-induced reaction data on actinides, which were compiled into JENDL Actinide File 2008 and JENDL-4.0. It has been extensively used in various nuclear data evaluations for both actinide and non-actinide nuclei. The CCONE code has been upgraded to nuclear data evaluation at higher incident energies for neutron-, proton-, and photon-induced reactions. It was also used for estimating β-delayed neutron emission. This paper describes the CCONE code system indicating the concept and design of coding and inputs. Details of the formulation for modelings of the direct, pre-equilibrium and compound reactions are presented. Applications to the nuclear data evaluations such as neutron-induced reactions on actinides and medium-heavy nuclei, high-energy nucleon-induced reactions, photonuclear reaction and β-delayed neutron emission are mentioned.
Shell structure and orbit bifurcations in finite fermion systems
We first give an overview of the shell-correction method which was developed by V.M. Strutinsky as a practicable and efficient approximation to the general self-consistent theory of finite fermion systems suggested by A.B. Migdal and collaborators. Then we present in more detail a semiclassical theory of shell effects, also developed by Strutinsky following original ideas of M.C. Gutzwiller. We emphasize, in particular, the influence of orbit bifurcations on shell structure. We first give a short overview of semiclassical trace formulae, which connect the shell oscillations of a quantum system with a sum over periodic orbits of the corresponding classical system, in what is usually called the 'periodic orbit theory'. We then present a case study in which the gross features of a typical double-humped nuclear fission barrier, including the effects of mass asymmetry, can be obtained in terms of the shortest periodic orbits of a cavity model with realistic deformations relevant for nuclear fission. Next we investigate shell structures in a spheroidal cavity model which is integrable and allows for far-going analytical computation. We show, in particular, how period-doubling bifurcations are closely connected to the existence of the so-called 'superdeformed' energy minimum which corresponds to the fission isomer of actinide nuclei. Finally, we present a general class of radial power-law potentials which approximate well the shape of a Woods-Saxon potential in the bound region, give analytical trace formulae for it and discuss various limits (including the harmonic oscillator and the spherical box potentials).
Measurement of the Delayed Photon Yield of the Photofission Reaction as a Method for Identifying Fissile Materials
The results of measuring the photofission reaction yield for actinide nuclei in the near-threshold energy region are presented. At the LUE-8-5 accelerator of the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the energy and time spectra of the delayed gamma quanta were obtained by irradiating fissile isotopes by bremsstrahlung photons. The conclusion is drawn about the possibility of identifying fissile isotopes by the behavior of the photofission cross section in the near-threshold region.