Linac -based photo-nuclear applications at the Idaho Accelerator Center

Abstract

At the Idaho Accelerator Center, beams of high energy bremsstrahlung photons generated by linear electron accelerators are used to induce photonuclear reactions for a wide variety of applications in materials science, activation analysis, medical research, and nuclear science and technology. Most of the exploited phenomena are governed by the familiar giant dipole resonance cross section in nuclei. One such program at the Idaho Accelerator Center is undertaking an investigation of the potential for two neutron correlations in photo-induced fission arising from the nearly back-to-back nature of the two fission fragments which emit these neutrons. These measurements will provide important nuclear data which will shed light on fundamental aspects of the fission process including information on the fission fragments' relative neutron multiplicities and multiplicity distributions, their nuclear temperatures, and the mass distributions of the fission fragments as a function of photon energy. Further, the unique kinematics of the fission process and the resulting two neutron correlations have the potential to be the basis for a new tool for the detection and characterization of objects containing fissionable materials.