Hadron cascades in iron and uranium

Cascade developments of hadrons and electrons are studied in iron and uranium-238 through the measurement of the total ionization produced in a fine grained multiplate ion chamber array. In iron the distribution of total ionization is dominated by nuclear binding energy fluctuations. In uranium-238, however, this fluctuation is compensated by correlated fission energy deposit resulting in a considerable reduction in the measured ionization fluctuation. (7 refs)