SPIDER: A new instrument for fission fragment research at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center

Fredrik Tovesson,Alexander Laptev,Drew Mader,Charles Arnold,Morgan White,Adam Hecht,Lucas Snyder,Rick Blakeley,Krista Meierbachtol,A Chatillon,D Goutte,G Fioni,H Goutte,F Farget,H Faust

doi:10.1051/epjconf/20136205002

Abstract

The study of fission fragment yields and how they behave as a function of excitation energy provides insight into the process in which they are formed. Fission yields are also important for nuclear applications, as they can be used as a diagnostic tool. A new instrument, SPIDER (Spectrometer for Ion DEtermination in fission Research), is being developed for measuring fission yields as a function of incident neutron energy at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. The instrument employs a time-of-flight mass spectrometry method in which the velocity and kinetic energy of the fragments are measured in order to determine their mass. Additionally, by using Bragg peak spectroscopy, the charge of the fragments can be identified. A prototype instrument has been developed and preliminary results indicate that ∼ 1 mass unit resolution is feasible using this approach. A larger detector array is currently being designed, and will be used at study fission yields from thermal neutron energies up to at least 20 MeV.

Highlights

The fission process is a highly complex process, and to this day there are no models that can reliably predict the properties of fragments for various compound system and excitation energies
Fission yields are important for nuclear applications, as they can be used as a diagnostic tool
Fission yields are important for nuclear applications: by collecting samples of spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and counting the number of atoms of a specific fission product one can infer the burn-up of the fuel

Summary

Introduction

The fission process is a highly complex process, and to this day there are no models that can reliably predict the properties of fragments for various compound system and excitation energies. Fission yields are important for nuclear applications: by collecting samples of spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor and counting the number of atoms of a specific fission product one can infer the burn-up of the fuel. The first performance tests of the individual detectors used in the SPIDER instrument are reported on here

Methods

Results

Conclusion