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Two blind analyses for 241Pu(nth,f) isobaric fission yields have been conducted, one analysis using a mix of a Monte-Carlo and an analytical method, the other one relying only on analytical calculations. The calculations have been derived from the same analysis path and experimental data, obtained on the LOHENGRIN mass spectrometer at the Institut Laue-Langevin. The comparison between the two analyses put into lights several biases and limits of each analysis and gives a comprehensive vision on the construction of the correlation matrix. It gives confidence in the analysis scheme used for the determination of the fission yields and their correlation matrix.

Studies on fission yields have a major impact on the characterization and the understanding of the fission process and are mandatory for reactor applications. Fission yield evaluation represents the synthesis of experimental and theoretical knowledge to perform the best estimation of mass, isotopic and isomeric yields. Today, the output of fission yield evaluation is available as a function of isotopic yields. Without the explicitness of evaluation covariance data, mass yield uncertainties are greater than those of isotopic yields. This is in contradiction with experimental knowledge where the abundance of mass yield measurements is dominant. These last years, different covariance matrices have been suggested but the experimental part of those are neglected. The collaboration between the LPSC Grenoble and the CEA Cadarache starts a new program in the field of the evaluation of fission products in addition to the current experimental program at Institut Laue-Langevin. The goal is to define a new methodology of evaluation based on statistical tests to define the different experimental sets in agreement, giving different solutions for different analysis choices. This study deals with the thermal neutron induced fission of 235U. The mix of data is non-unique and this topic will be discussed using the Shannon entropy criterion in the framework of the statistical methodology proposed.

Nuclear fission yields data measurements for thermal neutron induced fission of 241Pu have been carried out at the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, using the Lohengrin mass spectrometer. Mass, isotopic and isomeric yields have been extracted for the last measurements. A focus is given in this document to the mass yield results which are obtained for almost the entire heavy peak and most of the light high yields masses, along with the covariance matrix. The mean kinetic energy as a function of the fission product mass has also been extracted from the measurements. The total mean kinetic energy pre and post neutron emission have been assessed and compared to other works showing a rather good agreement.

Fission yields are essential for nuclear reactor studies (decay heat, fuel inventory…) and constitute also one of the main observables needed to improve our understanding of the fission process. The symmetric mass region is of particular interest due to various intriguing properties of the fission fragments already reported in the literature : inversion of the nuclear charge polarization, large width of the fission fragment kinetic energy distribution, strong change of the prompt neutron multiplicity, etc. Recently, measurements of fission yields and kinetic energy distributions in the symmetric mass region were achieved at the LOHENGRIN mass spectrometer of the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL). This experimental work is challenging due to the low counting rate and the appearance of contaminant masses, leading to pronounced components in the fission fragment kinetic energy distribution. Despite removing the undesirable contributions, the fission fragment kinetic energy distributions still show two components, indicating that the fission process could be modal. To go further and better characterize these components a comparison between our experimental data and Monte Carlo calculations (FIFRELIN code) simulating the de-excitation of the fission fragments for different fission channels will be presented and discussed.