[en] A boron carbide shield was designed, custom fabricated, and used to create a fast fission energy neutron spectrum. The fissionable isotopes 233, 235, 238U, 237Np, and 239Pu were separately placed inside of this shield and irradiated under pulsed conditions at the Washington State University 1 MW TRIGA reactor. A unique set of fission product gamma spectra were collected at short times (4 minutes to 1 week) post-fission. Gamma spectra were collected on single-crystal high purity germanium detectors and on Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's (PNNL's) Direct Simultaneous Measurement (DSM) system composed of HPGe detectors connected in coincidence. This work defines the experimental methods used to produce and collect the gamma data, and demonstrates the validity of the measurements. It is important to fully document this information so the data can be used with high confidence for the advancement of nuclear science and non-proliferation applications. The gamma spectra collected in these and other experiments will be made publicly available at https://spcollab.pnl.gov/sites/gammadata or via the link at http://rdnsgroup.pnl.gov. A revised version of this publication will be posted with the data to make the experimental details available to those using the data.

[en] A boron carbide capsule has been designed and used for spectral-tailoring experiments at the TRIGA reactor at Washington State University. Irradiations were conducted in pulsed mode and in continuous operation for up to 4 hours. A cadmium cover was used to reduce thermal heating. The neutron spectrum calculated with MCNP was found to be in good agreement with reactor dosimetry measurements using the STAY'SL computer code. The neutron spectrum resembles that of a fast reactor. Design of a capsule using boron carbide enriched in ¹⁰B shows that it is possible to produce a neutron spectrum similar to ²³⁵U fission.

[en] A unique set of fission product gamma spectra was collected at short times (4 minutes to 1 week) on various fissionable materials. Gamma spectra were collected from the neutron-induced fission of uranium, neptunium, and plutonium isotopes at thermal, epithermal, fission spectrum, and 14-MeV neutron energies. This report describes the experimental methods used to produce and collect the gamma data, defines the experimental parameters for each method, and demonstrates the consistency of the measurements.

[en] Washington State University's 1 MW TRIGA reactor has a long history of utilization for neutron activation analysis (NAA). TRIGA reactors have the ability to pulse, reach supercritical (k>1) for short bursts of time. At this high power and fast time the energy spectrum and neutron fluence are largely uncharacterized. The pulse neutron energy spectrum and fluence were determined by the activation of Cu, Au, Co, Fe, and Ti. These analyses were completed with and without Cd shielding to determine reproducibility between pulses. The applications and implications of the neutron energy and fluence reproducibility to the use of pulsed NAA will be discussed.

[en] Here, this work focused on the experimental analysis of depleted uranium irradiated with 14 MeV neutrons to obtain fission yields for 20 fission products with half-lives ranging from 16.8 h to 30.1 years. Several analytes were identified where improvements to the available nuclear data would be beneficial. The results obtained from this experiment could be used to make improvements to cumulative fission yield data once confirmatory measurements are made. The required separations will be described along with a comparison to the reported Evaluated Nuclear Data File fission yields and other experimental measurements.

[en] A target was prepared for cyclic neutron activation analysis by heat sealing lithium-carbonate in polyethylene. The target was cyclically irradiated 50 times using a Thermo-Scientific accelerator based deuterium–tritium fusion neutron generator. During counting periods, gamma-rays emitted by ¹⁶N were detected using three high-purity germanium detectors acquiring data in list-mode. Total counts acquired in each spectrum were compared between the three detectors to examine variability in geometric positioning of the target and variability of the generator intensity throughout the experiment. These two effects were determined to be the primary sources of variation in the measured counts. Variation in target positioning and generator intensity were found to increase the standard deviation by 34% and 33%, respectively. Transit times to the detector were found to be slower and more variable than transit to the generator but were well below the half second threshold needed to measure short-lived radionuclides with half-lives on the order of seconds. The standard deviation in irradiation time was found to be less than 1 milliseconds. The impact on statistical variability in the measured counts was negligible relative to the two primary sources of variation. Spectra acquired from each cycle were summed together. The sum of the peak areas from the 6.1 MeV gamma-ray and its corresponding single and double escape peaks were used to measure the half-life of ¹⁶N. The result of 7.108(15) seconds derived from data suggests that the currently published value of 7.13(2) seconds has minimal systematic bias induced by background. - Highlights: • Benchmarked the timing performance of a cyclic neutron activation analysis pneumatic transfer system. • Benchmarked the consistency over time of the neutron generator within the facility. • Validated the half-life measured for nitrogen-16 using a method unaffected by background. • Quantified the statistical impact of variations in the neutron generator and pneumatic system