Improved Delayed-Neutron Spectroscopy Using Trapped Ions
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
The neutrons emitted following the β decay of fission fragments (known as delayed neutrons because they are emitted after fission on a timescale of the β-decay half-lives) play a crucial role in reactor performance and control. Reviews of delayed-neutron properties highlight the need for high-quality data for a wide variety of delayed-neutron emitters to better understand the time dependence and energy spectrum of the neutrons as these properties are essential for a detailed understanding of reactor kinetics needed for reactor safety and to understand the behavior of these reactors under various accident and component-failure scenarios. For fast breeder reactors, criticality calculations require accurate delayed-neutron energy spectra and approximations that are acceptable for light-water reactors such as assuming the delayed-neutron and fission-neutron energy spectra are identical are not acceptable and improved β-delayed neutron data is needed for safety and accident analyses for these reactors. With improved nuclear data, the delayed neutrons flux and energy spectrum could be calculated from the contributions from individual isotopes and therefore could be accurately modeled for any fuel-cycle concept, actinide mix, or irradiation history. High-quality β-delayed neutron measurements are also critical to constrain modern nuclear-structure calculations and empirical models that predict the decay properties for nuclei for which no data exists and improve the accuracy and flexibility of the existing empirical descriptions of delayed neutrons from fission such as the six-group representation
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- NE0000703
- OSTI ID:
- 1437145
- Report Number(s):
- 13-5485; 13-5485
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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