SOFIA, a Next-Generation Facility for Fission Yields Measurements and Fission Study. First Results and Perspectives

摘要

Fission fragments play an important role in nuclear reactors evolution and safety. However, fragments yields are poorly known : data are essentially limited to mass yields from thermal neutron-induced fissions on a very few nuclei. SOFIA (Study On FIssion with Aladin) is an innovative experimental program on nuclear fission carried out at the GSI facility, which aims at providing isotopic yields on a broad range of fissioning systems. Relativistic secondary beams of actinides and pre-actinides are selected by the Fragment Separator (FRS) and their fission is triggered by electromagnetic interaction. The resulting excitation energy is comparable to the result of an interaction with a low-energy neutron, thus leading to useful data for reactor simulations. For the first time ever, both fission fragments are completely identified in charge and mass in a new recoil spectrometer, allowing for precise yields measurements. The yield of prompt neutrons can then be deduced, and the fission mechanism can be ascribed, providing new constraints for fission models. During the first experiment, all the technical challenges were matched : we have thus set new experimental standards in the measurements of relativistic heavy ions (time of flight, position, energy loss).This communication presents a first series of results obtained on the fission of ~(238)U; many other fissioning systems have also been measured and are being analyzed presently. A second SOFIA experiment is planned in September 2014, and will be focused on the measurement of the fission of ~(236)U, the analog of ~23~5U+n.