Improved predictions of reactor antineutrino spectra

Journal Article · Sun May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVC.83.054615· OSTI ID:21502486

Mueller, Th A; Lhuillier, D; Letourneau, A ^[1]; Fallot, M; Cormon, S; Giot, L; Martino, J; Porta, A; Yermia, F ^[2]; Fechner, M; Lasserre, T; Mention, G ^[3]

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1. Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Centre de Saclay, IRFU/SPhN, FR-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
2. Laboratoire SUBATECH, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, Universite de Nantes, CNRS/IN2P3, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, FR-44307 Nantes Cedex 3 (France)
3. Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, Centre de Saclay, IRFU/SPP, FR-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)

Precise predictions of the antineutrino spectra emitted by nuclear reactors is a key ingredient in measurements of reactor neutrino oscillations as well as in recent applications to the surveillance of power plants in the context of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. We report new calculations including the latest information from nuclear databases and a detailed error budget. The first part of this work is the so-called ab initio approach where the total antineutrino spectrum is built from the sum of all {beta} branches of all fission products predicted by an evolution code. Systematic effects and missing information in nuclear databases lead to final relative uncertainties in the 10-20% range. A prediction of the antineutrino spectrum associated with the fission of {sup 238}U is given based on this ab initio method. For the dominant isotopes we developed a more accurate approach combining information from nuclear databases and reference electron spectra associated with the fission of {sup 235}U, {sup 239}Pu, and {sup 241}Pu, measured at Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in the 1980s. We show how the anchor point of the measured total {beta} spectra can be used to suppress the uncertainty in nuclear databases while taking advantage of all the information they contain. We provide new reference antineutrino spectra for {sup 235}U, {sup 239}Pu, and {sup 241}Pu isotopes in the 2-8 MeV range. While the shapes of the spectra and their uncertainties are comparable to those of the previous analysis of the ILL data, the normalization is shifted by about +3% on average. In the perspective of the reanalysis of past experiments and direct use of these results by upcoming oscillation experiments, we discuss the various sources of errors and their correlations as well as the corrections induced by off-equilibrium effects.

• OSTI ID: 21502486
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Vol. 83, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevC.83.054615; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
ANCHORS
ANTINEUTRINOS
BETA SPECTRA
CORRECTIONS
CORRELATIONS
ELECTRON SPECTRA
EQUILIBRIUM
FISSION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FORECASTING
MEV RANGE 01-10
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
OSCILLATIONS
PLUTONIUM 239
PLUTONIUM 241
POWER PLANTS
URANIUM 235
URANIUM 238
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
FERMIONS
HEAVY NUCLEI
INTERNAL CONVERSION RADIOISOTOPES
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATERIALS
MATTER
MEV RANGE
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NEUTRINOS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
NUCLEI
PLUTONIUM ISOTOPES
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOISOTOPES
SPECTRA
SPONTANEOUS FISSION RADIOISOTOPES
URANIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES