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The CEA in collaboration with ILL and LPSC has developed a measurement program on symmetric and heavy mass fission product distributions. The combination of measurements with ionisation chamber and Ge detectors is necessary to describe precisely the heavy fission product region in mass and charge. Recently, new measurements of fission yields and kinetic energy distributions, for different fissioning systems (233,235 U(nth, f),241 Am(2nth, f) and 239,241 Pu(nth, f), were performed with recoil spectrometer LOHENGRIN. The focus has been done on the self-normalization of the data to provide new absolute measurements, independently of any libraries along with the experimental covariance matrix. To reach precise measurements, a new experimental procedure was developed along with a new analysis method.

Nuclear fission yields are key parameters to evaluate reactor physics observables, such as fuel inventory, decay heat, spent fuel radiotoxicity, criticality but also for understanding the fission process. Despite a significant effort allocated to measure fission yields during the last decades, the recent evaluated libraries still need improvements in particular in the description of the uncertainties with the associated correlations. Additional kinds of measurements provide complementary information in order to test the models used in the nuclear data evaluation. Moreover, some discrepancies between these libraries must be explained. A common effort by the CEA, the LPSC and the ILL aims at tackling these issues by providing precise measurement of isotopic and isobaric fission yields with the related variance-covariance matrices. Nevertheless, the experimental program represents itself a large range of observables requested by the evaluations: isotopic yields, nuclear charge polarization, odd-even effect, isomeric ratio and their dependency with fission fragment kinetic energy as a probe of the nuclear de-excitation path in the (E*, Jπ) representation. Measurements for thermal neutron induced fission of 241Pu have been carried out at the Institut Laue Langevin using the LOHENGRIN mass spectrometer. Experimental program, observables reachable, results and comparison to model calculations are shown.

The study of fission yields has a major impact on the characterization and understanding of the fission process and is mandatory for reactor applications. The LPSC in collaboration with ILL and CEA has developed a measurement program on fission fragment distributions at the Lohengrin spectrometer of the ILL, with a special focus on the masses constituting the heavy peak. We will present in this paper our measurement of the very low fission yields in the symmetry mass region and the heavy mass wing of the distribution for 233U thermal neutron induced fission. The difficulty due to the strong contamination by other masses with much higher yields will be addressed in the form of a new analysis method featuring the required contaminant correction. The apparition of structures in the kinetic energy distributions and possible interpretations will be discussed, such as a possible evidence of fission modes.

The modelling of γ heating and neutron damage inside a nuclear reactor is essential to design the next generation of nuclear reactors. The determination of the fission fragment momentum is a key element to perform accurate calculations of the γ heating. One way to assess this information is to look at the isomeric ratio of different nuclei. According to the lifetime of the isomeric state, different experimental techniques were developed at the LOHENGRIN spectrometer. A focus on the measurement of isomeric ratios of 136I in neutron induced fission of 241Pu is presented. A discussion with the current assumptions used in the evaluation process for isomeric ratio is also shown.

Within the EXILL campaign a large and efficient cluster of Ge-detectors was installed around a very well collimated neutron beam. This has allowed to carry out rather complete spectroscopic studies close to the line of stability using the (n,γ) reaction. Neutron rich isotopes were produced by neutron induced fission and prompt spectroscopy was carried out. The isotope selection in this setup was based on a partially known level scheme and the use of triple coincidences. The latter is limiting the statistical sensitivity in the case of weak production yields. Based on the experiences of these campaigns we are currently developing a new setup: FIPPS (FIssion Product Prompt Spectroscopy). This setup combines a collimated neutron beam, a highly efficient cluster of Ge detectors, a gas filled magnet and auxiliary detectors. The presence of the gas filled magnet will allow us to identify fission products directly and should give access to a new quality of studies if compared to the EXILL campaign. The EXILL campaign and the FIPPS project are presented.

The spectroscopy of the prompt gamma decay from fission products gives information on the entry states, e.g. distribution functions for excitation energy and spin, and therefore a direct link to the fission process itself. This type of spectroscopy is, however, only possible when a filter can be constructed which allows setting a gate to the gamma-spectrum in a narrow region in mass and nuclear charge, as well as on the total excitation energy of the fragment split under investigation. A possible configuration of a prompt gamma-ray spectrometer consist of a gamma-ray array composed of high resolution germanium detectors, coupled to a gas filled magnet. We will outline the principles for a gas filled magnetic spectrometer for fission product spectroscopy. In particular the focusing characteristics of such a device, which are valid for particles in the velocity regime of E/A< 1MeV/amu, will be addressed. First experiments on the LOHENGRIN spectrometer in Grenoble investigating on the behavior of fission products in gas filled magnets have been performed, and have validated the experimental approach to the nuclear fission process with such a device.

The study of fission yields has a major impact on the characterization and understanding of the fission process and is mandatory for reactor applications. While the yields are known for the major actinides (235U, 239Pu) in the thermal neutron-induced fission, only few measurements have been performed on 242Am. This paper presents the results of a measurement at the Lohengrin mass spectrometer (ILL, France) on the reaction 241Am(2nth,f): a total of 41 mass yields in the light and the heavy peaks have been measured and compared with the fission process simulation code GEF. Modus operandi and first results of a second experiment performed in May 2013 on the same reaction but with the goal of extracting the isotopic yields are presented as well: 8 mass yields were re-measured and 18 isotopic yields have been investigated and are being analyzed. Results concerning the kinetic energy and its comparison with the GEF Code are also presented in this paper.

We review the statistical model and its application for the process of nuclear fission. The expressions for excitation energy and spin distributions for the individual fission fragments are given. We will finally emphasize the importance of measuring prompt gamma decay to further test the statistical model in nuclear fission with the FIPPS project.

The study of fission yields has a major impact on the characterization and understanding of the fission process and is mandatory for reactor applications. While the yields are known for the major actinides (235U, 239Pu) in the thermal neutron-induced fission, only few measurements have been performed on 242Am. The interest of 242Am concerns the reduction of radiotoxicity of 241Am in nuclear wastes using transmutation reactions. This paper presents the measurement of the fission mass yields from the reaction 241Am(2nth,f) performed at the Lohengrin mass spectrometer (ILL, France) for both the light and the heavy peaks: a total of 41 mass yields have been measured. The experiment was also meant to determine whether there is a difference in mass yields between the isomeric state and the ground state as it exists in fission and capture cross sections. The method used to address this question is based on a repeated measurement of a set of fission mass yields as a function of the ratio between the 242gAm and the 242mAm fission rates. The presented experiment is also a first step towards the measurement of the isotopic fission yields of 242Am.

The accurate knowledge of the fission of actinides is necessary for studies of innovative nuclear reactor concepts. The fission yields have a direct influence on the evaluation of the fuel inventory or the reactor residual power after shutdown. A collaboration between the ILL, LPSC and CEA has developed a measurement program on fission fragment distributions at ILL in order to measure the isotopic and isomeric yields. The method is illustrated using the 233U(n,f)98Y reaction. However, the extracted beam from the Lohengrin spectrometer is not isobaric ions which limits the low yield measurements. Presently, the coupling of the Lohengrin spectrometer with a Gas Filled Magnet (GFM) is studied at the ILL in order to define and validate the enhanced purification of the extracted beam. This work will present the results of the spectrometer characterisation, along with a comparison with a dedicated Monte Carlo simulation especially developed for this purpose.