Spontaneous-fission Decay Constant Of 238u Measured By Nuclear Track Techniques Without Neutron Irradiation

A value of the decay constant for spontaneous fission of 238U, λf, determined by particle-track detector techniques, is presented. The main source of systematic error in fission-track measurements of λf, the so called "neutron dosimetry", has been avoided. Instead of calibrating the neutron source and the usual mica detector through tracks of 235U fission induced by thermal neutrons, spontaneous-fission tracks and alpha-particle tracks of 238U and 242Pu were used. A value of λf=(8.66± 0.38)·10-17 y-1 has been obtained.2581117122Fleischer, R.L., Price, P.B., Walker, R.M., (1975) Nuclear Tracks in Solids, Principles and Applications, p. 162. , University of California PressDurrani, S.A., Bull, R.K., (1987) Solid State Nuclear Track Detection: Principles, Methods and Applications, 111, p. 199. , International Series in Natural Philosophy, Pergamon PressHurford, A.J., (1990) Chem. Geol (Isot. Geosci. Sect.), 80, p. 171Fleischer, R.L., Price, P.B., (1964) Phys. Rev., 133, pp. 2975B63Bigazzi, G., (1981) Nucl. Tracks, 5, p. 33Hurford, A.J., (1998) Advances in Fission-track Geochronology, p. 19. , P. Van Den Haute and F. De Corte (Eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, DordrechtHolden, N.E., Hoffman, D.C., (2000) Pure Appl. Chem., 72, p. 1525Bellemans, F., De Corte, F., Van Den Haute, P., (1995) Appl. Radiation Isotopes, 46, p. 1351Suzuki, T., (2000) 9th Intern. Conf. on Fission Track Dating and Thermochronology, , Lorne, W. P. Noble, P. B. O'Sullivan and R. W. Brown (Eds), Geological Society of Australia, Abstracts No. 58, 311Bigazzi, G., Guedes, S., Hadler, J.C.N., Iunes, P.J., Oddone, M., Osório, A.M., Paulo, S.R., Zuñiga, A., (1999) Radiat. Meas., 31, p. 651Iunes, P.J., Hadler, J.C.N., Bigazzi, G., Tello, C.A.S., Guedes, S., Paulo, S.R., (2002) Chem. Geol., 187, p. 201Guedes, S., Hadler, J.C.N., Iunes, P.J., Burke, A.K., Kakazu, M.H., Sarkis, J.E.S., Paulo, S.R., Tello, C.A.S., (2002) J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem., 253, p. 73Littmark, U., Ziegler, J.F., (1980) Handbook of Range Distributions of Energetic Ions in All Elements, , Pergamon Press, New YorkFirestone, R.B., Shirley, V.S., Chu, S.Y.F., Baglin, C.M., Ziplein, J., (1996) Table of Isotopes, , John Wiley and Sons, New YorkMatzke, H., (1999) J. Nucl. Mater., 270, p. 49Bevington, P.R., Robinson, D.K., (1992) Data Reduction and Data Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences, 2nd Ed., p. 71. , McGraw-Hill, Bosto