The preparation of a 239Pu mother source for the production of 235mU targets

J. Pauwels, R. Eykens, D. D'eer, C. Wagemans, M. Neve de Mevergnies

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    One of the major difficulties to study the properties of 235mU is the short half-life of the target nuclide (t 1 2=26.1 min), so that an easy to operate system of routine production of appropriate targets installed close to the measuring facility is required. Such a system was developed in the form of a 40 cm diameter aluminium sphere internally coated by vacuum deposition with 239PuF3. The 235mU recoils are collected in vacuum on gold-coated polyimide foils which are introduced via a movable target holder and are put at a negative potential to increase the collection efficiency. At 1 kV and 1 Pa the number of collected nuclei after one half-life is 8 × 109. Contamination by 239Pu is negligible.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)21-25
    Number of pages5
    JournalNuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research, A
    Volume257
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 1 Jun 1987

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
    • Instrumentation

    Cite this