We have measured in-beam γ rays in the neutron-rich 246 Pu 152 and 245 Pu 151 nuclei by means of 244 Pu( 18 O, 16 O) 246 Pu and 244 Pu( 18 O, 17 O) 245 Pu neutron transfer reactions, respectively. The γ rays emitted from 246 Pu ( 245 Pu) were identified by selecting the kinetic energy of scattered 16 O ( 17 O) detected by Si E − E detectors.The ground-state band of 246 Pu was established up to the 12 + state. We have found that the shell gap of N = 152 is reduced in energy with decreasing atomic number by extending the systematics of the one-quasiparticle energies in N = 151 nuclei into those in 245 Pu. This reduction of the shell gap clearly affects the 2 + energy of the ground-state band of 246 Pu.
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