In 2010, our group initiated a new program of fission yield measurements at the Lohengrin spectrometer, in collaboration with ILL and CEA (Cadrache & Saclay). Our first objective is to get new sets of measurements of isobaric, isotopic and isomeric yields for actinides of interest for the present fuel cycle (U-Pu) and some innovative ones (Tu-U and multi-recycled U-Pu). The need to know precisely the impact of nuclear data on nuclear system studies requires a new evaluation of these yields together with their variance-covariance matrix. Measurement correlations are then the key point to determine the impact of measurement uncertainties on calculations of end of cycle inventories as well as their decay heat. Our first studies on 233U, 241Pu and 241Am pointed out the classical methodolodgy limits and allowed the proposition of a new methodolodgy preventing the data from any correlation with evaluations or existing data.
The group is also involved in the FIPPS project (FIssion Product Prompt gamma ray Spectrometer) of ILL: it consists in the coupling of a gaseous magnetic spectrometec to a high resolution gamma spectrometer (HPGe). The objective is to develop a new instrument for fission dynamic characterization thanks to the study of kinetic momentum distributions induced by fission.
