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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Miss Piggy, a californium-252 fission fragment source as a generator of short-lived radionuclides
Heinz W. GäggelerHeinz W. GäggelerD. PiguetCh. E. DüllmannCh. E. DüllmannNorbert TrautmannBernd EichlerS. SovernaS. SovernaP. ThörleAndreas TürlerD.t. JostU. KindlerRobert Eichlersubject
PhysicsNuclear physicsNuclear and High Energy PhysicsNuclear fission productFission productsNuclear transmutationXenon-135NeutronFission product yieldNuclideLong-lived fission productInstrumentationdescription
Abstract Carrier-free short-lived nuclides are employed in many different fields of modern nuclear chemistry. The two main production strategies are either thermal neutron-induced fission of 235U or 239Pu at nuclear reactors or spallation neutron sources or charged particle-induced nuclear reactions at accelerator facilities. An alternative method is to use a spontaneously fissioning nuclide. A facility applying this technique (“Miss Piggy”) was built at the University of Berne (Switzerland). Californium-252 (252Cf), which has a 3% fission branch and a half-life of 2.645 a, is used for the production of short-lived fission products that are stopped in an adjacent recoil chamber. Short-lived nuclides are transported out of the recoil chamber using the well-known gas-jet technique. Over 100 nuclides have been identified so far and used in different applications. Since such a device does not require any large facility and is easy to operate it serves well the needs of typical university laboratories.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-10-01 | Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment |