International Conference on Nuclear Data for Science and Technology 2007
DOI: 10.1051/ndata:07748

Tritium production from ternary fission

O. Serot¹, C. Wagemans², S. Vermote², J. Heyse^{3, 4}, T. Soldner⁵, P. Geltenbort⁵, I. AlMahamid^{6, 7}, J. Floyd⁷ and W.W. Lukens<sup>7

1</sup>  CEA-Cadarache, DEN/DER/SPRC/LEPh, Bât. 230, 13108 Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France
²  Dept. of Subatomic and Radiation Physics, University of Gent, Proeftuinstraat 86, 9000 Gent, Belgium
³  EC-JRC, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, Retieseweg 111, 2440 Geel, Belgium
⁴  SCK-CEN, Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol, Belgium
⁵  Institut Laue-Langevin, BP. 156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
⁶  Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, Albany, NY 12201, USA
⁷  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

olivier.serot@cea.fr

Published online: 21 May 2008

Abstract
The tritium gas emission in the thermal neutron induced ternary fission of ²⁴⁹Cf has been determined for the first time in a measurement at the intense neutron beam PF1B of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble (France). A ²⁴⁹Cf sample was mounted in the centre of a vacuum chamber, at a short distance of a ΔE-E telescope which permitted the identification of the ternary particles. The binary fission fragments were detected in a separate run, using only the E detector. From these measurements, the energy distributions and the emission probabilities of the ternary ³H particles emitted in the thermal neutron induced ternary fission of ²⁴⁹Cf could be determined. Based on this result and on measurements published by us recently, we could enlarge the database related to ³H emission probabilities (denoted t/B) and their energy distributions in particular for the Cm and Cf isotopes. The impact of the excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus on the ternary particle emission probability is discussed, comparing for a given compound nucleus, the t/B data obtained from thermal neutron induced fission (excitation energy of the fissioning nucleus = the neutron binding energy) and from spontaneous fission (excitation energy = zero). In addition, semi-empirical relations between t/B data and characteristics of the binary fission process are proposed.

© CEA 2008