Detection of uranium fission products through neutron activation

Abstract—Uranium compounds are used in many nuclear power plants, and the neutron-induced fission reactions produce many decay products. Some of these are of interest from an efficiency or safety point of view. For this reason, it is important to quantitatively and qualitatively know these nuclides.The objective of this study is to experimentally determine these properties through neutron activation and gamma ray spectroscopy. Using a germanium semiconductor detector, gamma rays emitted from fission daughter isotopes produced from neutron irradiation of a uranium sample are measured. The resulting spectra are analyzed, proving the existence of fission daughter isotopes in the specimen. The data also provides experimental estimations of initial half-life of these isotopes