An on-line mass separator for fission-produced alkali isotopes

Abstract The design of an on-line mass separator installed at the TRIGA reactor in Mainz is described and its performance discussed. A tungsten oven, filled with about 2 g of 235U embedded in graphite, is exposed to a flux of 1.7 × 1011 thermal neutrons (s− cm−2) near the reactor core. After diffusion out of the graphite the fission-produced alkali isotopes are surface-ionized and electromagnetically mass-separated, the resolving power being about 750. Losses during the diffusion out of the target material are discussed. Due to these losses the maximum separator efficiency is about 5%, corresponding to a source strength of about 109 particles s−1 for the most abundant isotopes. The heaviest…

Half-lives, neutron emission probabilities and fission yields of neutron-rich rubidium isotopes in the mass regionA=96 toA=100

Neutron-rich rubidium isotopes were produced by thermal-neutron induced fission of235U and were isolated by surface ionization and mass separation. The new isotope (51 ±17) ms100Rb was identified. The half-lives of the rubidium isotopes with mass numberA=96 toA=100 were measured using neutron multiscaling or gamma multispectrum analysis. Measurements of the delayed-neutron emission probabilityP n of99Rb and of the fission yields of97Rb,98Rb, and99Rb were performed.

Determination of nuclear spins of short-lived Rb and Cs isotopes by β radiation detected optical pumping