Prompt Fission Neutron Spectra of 233U(n, F), 235U(n, F), 239Pu(n, F) and 240Pu(n,F)

Abstract

The prompt fission neutron spectra of fuel and fertile nuclei are of key importance for the safety/efficiency of nuclear reactors, deployed or next generation either. The newly measured prompt fission neutron spectra and revisited prompt fission neutron spectra data for 235U(n,f), 239Pu(n,f) and 240Pu(n,f) reactions strongly discard the actual prompt fission neutron spectra evaluated data provided in available evaluated neutron data libraries. The reasons for that are rather diverse. The newly measured prompt fission neutron spectra are of double time of flight type. Rather wide range of the incident neutron energies, for which the outgoing prompt fission neutrons are lumped, complicates a lot the prompt fission neutron spectra measured data fits via physical modelling, especially after the onset of the (n,xnf) reactions. In most cases the measured prompt fission neutron spectra at discrete incident neutron energies up to 20 MeV, as well as those measured with double time of flight technique were considered not correlated and their consistent analyses were almost never tried upon with rare exceptions.