Impact of Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer measurements of β decay of fission products on the decay heat and reactor ν[over ¯]_{e} flux calculation.

Abstract

We report the results of a β-decay study of fission products ^{86}Br, ^{89}Kr, ^{89}Rb, ^{90gs}Rb, ^{90m}Rb, ^{90}Kr, ^{92}Rb, ^{139}Xe, and ^{142}Cs performed with the Modular Total Absorption Spectrometer (MTAS) and on-line mass-separated ion beams. These radioactivities were assessed by the Nuclear Energy Agency as having high priority for decay heat analysis during a nuclear fuel cycle. We observe a substantial increase in β feeding to high excited states in all daughter isotopes in comparison to earlier data. This increases the average γ-ray energy emitted by the decay of fission fragments during the first 10 000s after fission of ^{235}U and ^{239}Pu by approximately 2% and 1%, respectively, improving agreement between results of calculations and direct observations. New MTAS results reduce the reference reactor ν[over ¯]_{e} flux used to analyze reactor ν[over ¯]_{e} interaction with detector matter. The reduction determined by the abinitio method for the four nuclear fuel components, ^{235}U, ^{238}U, ^{239}Pu, and ^{241}Pu, amounts to 0.976, 0.986, 0.983, and 0.984, respectively.