No abstract

No abstract

BRIKEN is a complex detection system to be installed at the RIB-facility of the RIKEN Nishina Center. It is aimed at the detection of heavy-ion implants, β-particles, γ-rays and β-delayed neutrons. The whole detection setup involves the Advanced Implantation Detection Array (AIDA), two HPGe Clover detectors and a large set of 166 counters of 3He embedded in a high-density polyethylene matrix. This article reports on a novel methodology developed for the conceptual design and optimisation of the 3He-tubes array, aiming at the best possible performance in terms of neutron detection. The algorithm is based on a geometric representation of two selected parameters of merit, namely, average neutron detection efficiency and efficiency flatness, as a function of a reduced number of geometric variables. The response of the detection system itself, for each configuration, is obtained from a systematic MC-simulation implemented realistically in Geant4. This approach has been found to be particularly useful. On the one hand, due to the different types and large number of 3He-tubes involved and, on the other hand, due to the additional constraints introduced by the ancillary detectors for charged particles and gamma-rays. Empowered by the robustness of the algorithm, we have been able to design a versatile detection system, which can be easily re-arranged into a compact mode in order to maximize the neutron detection performance, at the cost of the gamma-ray sensitivity. In summary, we have designed a system which shows, for neutron energies up to 1(5) MeV, a rather flat and high average efficiency of 68.6%(64%) and 75.7%(71%) for the hybrid and compact modes, respectively. The performance of the BRIKEN system has been also quantified realistically by means of MC-simulations made with different neutron energy distributions. *

No abstract

The β-delayed neutron emission of 83;84 Ga isotopes was studied using the neutron time-of-flight technique. The measured neutron energy spectra showed emission from states at excitation energies high above the neutron separation energy and previously not observed in the β decay of midmass nuclei. The large decay strength deduced from the observed intense neutron emission is a signature of Gamow-Teller transformation. This observation was interpreted as evidence for allowed β decay to 78 Ni core-excited states in 83;84 Ge favored by shell effects. We developed shell model calculations in the proton fpg 9=2 and neutron extended fpg 9=2 þ d 5=2 valence space using realistic interactions that were used to understand measured β-decay lifetimes. We conclude that enhanced, concentrated β-decay strength for neutron-unbound states may be common for very neutron-rich nuclei. This leads to intense β-delayed high-energy neutron and strong multineutron emission probabilities that in turn affect astrophysical nucleosynthesis models. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.092502 β-delayed neutron emission from fission fragments was first observed in 1939 following the neutron bombardment of uranium salts [1]. It was recognized that the delayed neutron energies and emission probabilities, P n , are important parameters to model environments that involve neutron-rich isotopes. Two of the main applications are in nuclear reactor physics [2] and r-process nucleosynthesis [3]. Because β-delayed neutron precursors are neutron rich and far from stability, they are always relatively difficult to produce and study. Advances in detector capabilities allowed for pioneering measurements of neutron emission spectra of fission fragments [4,5]. In these experiments, resonancelike behavior was observed in the neutron emission spectrum [4,6].These efforts were halted in the following decade by several factors. First, it became increasingly difficult to produce species with larger neutron excess. Second, the very influential work by Hardy, Johnson, and Hansen on "pandemonium" attributed the features of the neutron spectra to purely statistical effects and warned against overinterpretation of the measurements [7]. Misinterpretations of their work attributed decay observables of all heavy nuclei to gross features of the decay strength and statistical fluctuations of the level density. A more accurate depiction of their work is that neutron emission characteristics cannot be interpreted without considering the effects of high level density. The pandemonium controversy [8] arose partly from the fact that, at the time, there was no capability to compute nuclear properties using a sufficiently complete microscopic model of the nucleus.State-of-the-art models are now capable of computing decay properties of atomic nuclei, such as lifetimes and branching ratios. It has become increasingly clear that the β-decay observables are profoundly influenced by nuclearPublished by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Lic...

The active volume of the detector is approximately one ton of NaI(Tl), which results in very high full γ energy peak efficiency of 71% at 6 MeV and nearly flat efficiency of around 81.5 % for low energy γ-rays between 300 keV and 1 MeV. In addition to the high peak efficiency, the modular construction of the detector permits the use of a γ-coincidence technique in data analysis as well as β-delayed neutron observation.

We report the results of a β-decay study of fission products ^{86}Br, ^{89}Kr, ^{89}Rb, ^{90gs}Rb, ^{90m}Rb, ^{90}Kr, ^{92}Rb, ^{139}Xe, and ^{142}Cs performed with the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer (MTAS) and on-line mass-separated ion beams. These radioactivities were assessed by the Nuclear Energy Agency as having high priority for decay heat analysis during a nuclear fuel cycle. We observe a substantial increase in β feeding to high excited states in all daughter isotopes in comparison to earlier data. This increases the average γ-ray energy emitted by the decay of fission fragments during the first 10 000 s after fission of ^{235}U and ^{239}Pu by approximately 2% and 1%, respectively, improving agreement between results of calculations and direct observations. New MTAS results reduce the reference reactor ν[over ¯]_{e} flux used to analyze reactor ν[over ¯]_{e} interaction with detector matter. The reduction determined by the ab initio method for the four nuclear fuel components, ^{235}U, ^{238}U, ^{239}Pu, and ^{241}Pu, amounts to 0.976, 0.986, 0.983, and 0.984, respectively.

Background An assessment done under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Agency in 2007 suggested that the β decays of abundant fission products in nuclear reactors may be incomplete. Many of the nuclei are potentially affected by the so called Pandemonium effect and their β-γ decay heat should be restudied using the total absorption technique. The fission products 137 I and 137 Xe were assigned highest priority for restudy due to their large cumulative fission branching fractions. In addition, measuring β-delayed neutron emission probabilities is challenging and any new technique for measuring the β-neutron spectrum and the β-delayed neutron emission probabilities is an important addition to nuclear physics experimental techniques.Purpose To obtain the complete β-decay pattern of 137 I and 137 Xe and determine their consequences for reactor decay heat andνe emission. Complete β-decay feeding includes ground state to ground state β feeding with no associated γ rays, ground state to excited states β transitions followed by γ transitions to the daughter nucleus ground state, and β-delayed neutron emission from the daughter nucleus in the case of 137 I. MethodWe measured the complete β-decay intensities of 137 I and 137 Xe with the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. We describe a novel technique for measuring the β-delayed neutron energy spectrum, which also provides a measurement of the β-neutron branching ratio, Pn.Results We validate the current ENSDF evaluation of 137 Xe β decay. We find that major changes to the current ENSDF assessment of 137 I β-decay intensity are required. The average γ energy per β decay for 137 I β decay (γ decay heat) increases by 19%, from 1050 keV to 1250 keV, which increases the average γ energy per 235 U fission by 0.11%. We measure a β delayed neutron branching fraction for 137 I β decay of 7.9 ± 0.2(f it) ± 0.4(sys)% and we provide a β-neutron energy spectrum. ConclusionsThe Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer measurements of 137 I and 137 Xe demonstrate the importance of revisiting and remeasuring complex β decaying fission products with total absorption spectroscopy. We demonstrate the ability of the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer to measure β-delayed neutron energy spectra.