Strontium-92 half-life measurement through accurate γ-ray spectrometry

Abstract
Many aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle require an accurate knowledge of the energy release from the decay of radioactive nuclides produced in a reactor, especially half-life data for short-lived radionuclides. Short-lived fission products are also important for fission rate distribution measurements performed in low power facilities, such as EOLE and MINERVE at CEA Cadarache, and their nuclear decay data need to be known with a high precision. For these reasons, the half-life of ⁹²Sr has been measured to solve a recently observed inconsistency with the quoted value in the nuclear data libraries: T_1/2 = 2.71 ± 0.01 h. In this work, a new value is proposed: T_1/2 = 2.594 ± 0.005 h. A better accuracy is achieved compared to previous evaluations. It also shows a good agreement with the most recent studies: T_1/2 = 2.627 ± 0.009 h.