Measurements of angular and energy distributions of prompt neutrons from thermal neutron-induced fission

Abstract

The experimental setup and methodology used to measure prompt neutron angular and energy distributions from thermal neutron-induced fission are described. The neutrons are detected using two scintillation detectors, while the fission fragments are detected by multi-wire proportional detectors in conjunction with the TOF technique. To separate events corresponding to neutrons and γ-quanta, a double discrimination by the pulse shape and the time-of-flight is applied. Some preliminary results of an experiment performed with the 235U target are presented and briefly discussed. The yield of “scission” neutrons has been estimated in the framework of a simple evaporation model and was found not to exceed 5% of the total neutron yield. Including an assumed of anisotropy of the fission neutron angular distribution in the center-of-mass system of fission fragments into the model calculation leads to an increase in the “scission” neutron yields inferred from the data.