Complete β-decay patterns of 142Cs,142Ba, and 142La determined using total absorption spectroscopy

Wolinska-Cichocka, Marzena; Rasco, B. Charlie; Rykaczewski, Krzysztof P.; Brewer, Nathan T.; Fijałkowska, A.; Karny, Marek; Grzywacz, Robert Kazimierz; Goetz, K. C.; Gross, Carl J.; Stracener, Dan W.; Zganjar, E. F.; Batchelder, J. C.; Blackmon, J. C.; Go, S.; Heffron, B.; Johnson, James; King, Toby T.; Matta, James T.; Miernik, Krzysztof; Madurga, M.; McCutchan, E. A.; Miller, D.; Nesaraja, Caroline D.; Paulauskas, S. V.; Rajabali, M. M.; Taylor, S.; Sonzogni, A. A.; Wang, E. H.; Winger, J. A.; Xiao, Y.; Zachary, C. J.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevC.107.034303

Title: Complete β-decay patterns of ¹⁴²Cs,¹⁴²Ba, and ¹⁴²La determined using total absorption spectroscopy

Journal Article · 06 March 2023 · Physical Review. C

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.107.034303 · OSTI ID:1960701

^[1]; Rasco, B. Charlie ^[2];

^[3]; Brewer, Nathan T. ^[2]; Fijałkowska, A. ^[4]; Karny, Marek ^[1];

^[2]; Goetz, K. C. ^[2]; Gross, Carl J. ^[3];

^[3]; Zganjar, E. F. ^[5]; Batchelder, J. C. ^[6]; Blackmon, J. C. ^[5]; Go, S. ^[7]; Heffron, B. ^[8]; Johnson, James ^[3];

^[2];

^[3]; Miernik, Krzysztof ^[9]; Madurga, M. ^[8] more »

Univ. of Warsaw (Poland); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Warsaw (Poland); Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); RIKEN, Saitama (Japan)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Warsaw (Poland)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); SkuTek Instrumentation, West Henrietta, NY (United States)
Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville, TN (United States)
Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Mississippi State Univ., Mississippi State, MS (United States)

Background: The β decays of fission products produced in nuclear fuel are important for nuclear energy applications and fundamental science of reactor antineutrinos. In particular, nuclear reactor safety is related to the decay modes of radioactive neutron-rich nuclei, primarily via the emission of γ rays, neutrons, and electrons. Additionally nuclear reactors are the most powerful man-made source of antineutrinos emitted during the β decay of fission products. These antineutrinos are used to inspect fundamental properties of leptons as well as informing reactor operation. However, the majority of data on complex decays of fission products collected in the evaluated nuclear data repositories like Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) and Evaluated Nuclear Data Files (ENDF) are based on low-efficiency and often incomplete measurements resulting in questionable reference reactor antineutrino flux predictions, see the analysis by [Nichols, J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. 52, 17 (2015)]. Various assessments like the one done under the auspices of the [Yoshida et al., Assessment of Fission Product Decay Data for Decay Heat Calculations: A report by the Working Party on International Evaluation Co-operation of the Nuclear Energy Agency Nuclear Science Committee (Nuclear Energy Agency, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, France, 2007), Vol. 25], as well as by [Sonzogni, Johnson, and McCutchan, Phys. Rev. C 91, 011301(R) (2015)] and [Dwyer and Langford, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 012502 (2015)], list the A = 142 isobars with high cumulative fission yield among the important nuclei where data for reactor decay heat and/or antineutrino production should be verified and/or improved. Purpose: Here, our goal is to improve the quality of β -decay measurements and evaluate the impact of modified decay schemes on reactor decay heat and antineutrino energy spectra, for fission products along the A = 142 isobaric chain. This work is an in depth follow-up on [Rasco et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 092501 (2016)]. which presented briefly the impact of the corrected decay scheme of ¹⁴²Cs . Here, we extend the data to full isobaric decay chain including the daughter nuclei, ¹⁴²Ba and ¹⁴²La, and present more details on the ¹⁴²Cs results. Method: The decays of neutron-rich isobars of mass A = 142 produced by means of proton-induced fission of 238 U were measured using the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer (MTAS) array on-line at the mass separator and Tandem accelerator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Results: The β -decay schemes for ¹⁴²Cs and ¹⁴² La were modified with respect to the nuclear data repositories. A small β-delayed neutron branching ratio for ¹⁴²Cs emitter was remeasured as $$0.10^{+5}_{–3}% %. Improved precision on the measured half-lives is reported. Small corrections to the low-energy decay of ¹⁴²Ba are made. The β-decay patterns for ¹⁴²La and ¹⁴²Cs are presented. The decay heat release and cross section for the detection of reactor antineutrinos are deduced and compared to earlier results. Conclusions: The β-feeding pattern for ¹⁴²Cs having decay energy value $$Q_β$ of over 7 MeV was substantially modified with respect to the current ENSDF entry. Smaller changes were encountered for ¹⁴² La, but since this A = 142 isobar also has a large cumulative yield in fission, the changes influence both decay heat and the antineutrino spectra. The previously known β intensities for ¹⁴²Ba decay ($$Q_β$$ value of 2.2 MeV) were verified and slightly modified. Overall, increased decay heat values and lower flux of antineutrinos interacting with matter are presented.

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Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Centre of Poland (NCN); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; FG02-96ER40978; FG02-96ER40983; FG02-96ER41006; FG05-88ER40407; SC0012704

OSTI ID:: 1960701

Report Number(s):: BNL-224467-2023-JAAM

Journal Information:: Physical Review. C, Journal Name: Physical Review. C Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 107; ISSN 2469-9985

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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