Uranium fission and plutonium production in the undergraduate lab

Jos Van Willigen; Casper Loman; Pjotr Thibaudier; David B.R.A. Fokkema; Tom W. Hijmans

doi:10.1119/10.0000206

Uranium fission and plutonium production in the undergraduate lab

Jos Van Willigen, Casper Loman, Pjotr Thibaudier, David B.R.A. Fokkema, Tom W. Hijmans^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Student Lab and Education

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Abstract

An experiment in which the fission of uranium-238 upon bombardment with neutrons is demonstrated in the context of an undergraduate lab course. The occurrence of fission is shown by means of gamma spectroscopy which reveals the presence of the fission product strontium-92. In addition, we also investigate the reaction in which plutonium-239 is formed after neutron activation of the uranium, with neptunium-239 as an intermediary step. From the gamma spectra, it is found that both reactions are demonstrated with a significance of more than 5 σ. For the fission reaction, a cross section of (2.8 ± 1.4) × 10 - 2 barn is inferred.

Original language	English
Article number	200
Pages (from-to)	200-206
Number of pages	7
Journal	American Journal of Physics
Volume	88
Issue number	3
Early online date	1 Mar 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0000206
Publication status	Published - Mar 2020

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title = "Uranium fission and plutonium production in the undergraduate lab",

abstract = "An experiment in which the fission of uranium-238 upon bombardment with neutrons is demonstrated in the context of an undergraduate lab course. The occurrence of fission is shown by means of gamma spectroscopy which reveals the presence of the fission product strontium-92. In addition, we also investigate the reaction in which plutonium-239 is formed after neutron activation of the uranium, with neptunium-239 as an intermediary step. From the gamma spectra, it is found that both reactions are demonstrated with a significance of more than 5 σ. For the fission reaction, a cross section of (2.8 ± 1.4) × 10 - 2 barn is inferred.",

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AU - Hijmans, Tom W.

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AB - An experiment in which the fission of uranium-238 upon bombardment with neutrons is demonstrated in the context of an undergraduate lab course. The occurrence of fission is shown by means of gamma spectroscopy which reveals the presence of the fission product strontium-92. In addition, we also investigate the reaction in which plutonium-239 is formed after neutron activation of the uranium, with neptunium-239 as an intermediary step. From the gamma spectra, it is found that both reactions are demonstrated with a significance of more than 5 σ. For the fission reaction, a cross section of (2.8 ± 1.4) × 10 - 2 barn is inferred.

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Uranium fission and plutonium production in the undergraduate lab

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