Abstract and subjects
We report cumulative fission product yields (FPY) measured at Los Alamos for 14 MeV neutrons on U-235, U-238 and Pu-239. The results are from historical measurements made in the 1950s-1970s, not previously available in the peer reviewed literature, although an early version of the data was reported in the Ford and Norris review. The results are compared with other measurements and with the ENDF/B-VI England and Rider evaluation. Compared to the Laurec (CEA) data and to ENDF/B-VI evaluation, good agreement is seen for U-235 and U-238, but our FPYs are generally higher for (PU)-P-239. The reason for the higher plutonium FPYs compared to earlier Los Alamos assessments reported by Ford and Norris is that we update the measured values to use modern nuclear data, and in particular the 14 MeV Pu-239 fission cross section is now known to be 15-20% lower than the value assumed in the 1950s, and therefore our assessed number of fissions in the plutonium sample is correspondingly lower. Our results are in excellent agreement with absolute FPY measurements by Nethaway (1971), although Nethaway later renormalized his data down by 9% having hypothesized that he had a normalization error. The new ENDF/B-VII.1 14 MeV FPY evaluation is in good agreement with our data.