Actinide Production in the Reaction of Heavy Ions withCurium-248
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Chemical experiments were performed to examine the usefulness of heavy ion transfer reactions in producing new, neutron-rich actinide nuclides. A general quasi-elastic to deep-inelastic mechanism is proposed, and the utility of this method as opposed to other methods (e.g. complete fusion) is discussed. The relative merits of various techniques of actinide target synthesis are discussed. A description is given of a target system designed to remove the large amounts of heat generated by the passage of a heavy ion beam through matter, thereby maximizing the beam intensity which can be safely used in an experiment. Also described is a general separation scheme for the actinide elements from protactinium (Z = 91) to mendelevium (Z = 101), and fast specific procedures for plutonium, americium and berkelium. The cross sections for the production of several nuclides from the bombardment of 248Cm with 18O, 86Kr and 136Xe projectiles at several energies near and below the Coulomb barrier were determined. The results are compared with yields from 48Ca and 238U bombardments of 248Cm. Simple extrapolation of the product yields into unknown regions of charge and mass indicates that the use of heavy ion transfer reactions to produce new, neutron-rich above-target species is limited. The substantial production of neutron-rich below-target species, however, indicates that with very heavy ions like 136Xe and 238U the new species 248Am, 249Am and 247Pu should be produced with large cross sections from a 248Cm target. A preliminary, unsuccessful attempt to isolate 247Pu is outlined. The failure is probably due to the half life of the decay, which is calculated to be less than 3 minutes. The absolute gamma ray intensities from 251Bk decay, necessary for calculating the 251Bk cross section, are also determined.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 900676
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-16249; TRN: US200711%%706
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Actinide production in reactions of heavy ions with /sup 248/Cm
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