Relative alpha intensities of several actinide nuclides

Abstract

The relative intensities of alpha groups in the decays of 233U, 238Pu, 239Pu, 240Pu and 241Am have been measured with a high-resolution semiconductor detector. Isotopically enriched and essentially massless sources, prepared by an electromagnetic isotope separator, were used in this investigation. All spectra were recorded at low geometries, in order to reduce distortions in alpha intensities due to alpha-electron coincidence summing and had resolutions (fwhm) of ∼13 keV. For all of the nuclides studied, intensities have been measured with higher accuracies than previously reported. The intensities of the 240Pu alpha groups obtained in this work are significantly different from the literature values. For other nuclides, our intensities agree with previous measurements.