Fission Yield Measurements from Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Produced Neutrons Using Cyclic Neutron Activation Analysis and Coincidence Counting.

Abstract

The work described in this dissertation used cyclic neutron activation analysis (CNAA) coupled with gamma-gamma coincidence counting with high-purity germanium detectors to measure the independent and cumulative fission yields of short-lived fission products from thorium-232, uranium-235, and uranium-238. Fission yields of short-lived fission products are needed to enhance the precision and expediency of pre- and post-detonation nuclear forensics. The measurements presented in this work illustrate the large differences in the delayed gamma-ray response following a nuclear detonation. The work performed in this dissertation applied non-destructive CNAA using deuterium-tritium fusion produced neutrons to induce fission. Irradiated targets were shuttled from the irradiation position at the face of the neutron generator to a radiation detection system in less than 0.3 seconds using a pneumatic transfer system. Delayed gamma-rays emitted by fission progeny with half-lives on the order of seconds to several minutes were acquired using three high-purity germanium detectors operating in coincidence. Gamma emissions from this timescale exhibit the largest differences in intensity between individual actinides because of order-of-magnitude variations in independent fission yields for fission products at the wings and valley of the fission product distribution curve. Fission product decay data from the listed targets were evaluated to measure the fission yields of arsenic-84, selenium-86, bromine-88, krypton-90 and -92, rubidium-94, strontium-94, -95, and -96, yttrium-96m, zirconium-99, barium-143, and lanthanum-146. Time-dependent gamma-ray spectra were used to measure the fission yields of the listed radioisotopes along with: bromine-86 and -87, krypton-89, yttrium-97m and -99, tellurium-136, iodine-136 metastable and ground states, xenon-138, -139, and -140, cesium-140 and -142, and barium and lanthanum-144. All of the measured fission yields have yet to be experimentally determined, with exception to the noble gases. In the near term, these fission yields will improve the accuracy of the fission yields of fission products with half-lives on the order of hours to days produced by deuterium-tritium fusion neutron induced fission. Better precision in the fission yields of longer lived fission products improves the accuracy of the nuclear forensics process. In the future, these fission yields could aid nuclear forensics analyses from a global array of high-resolution gamma spectrometers.