Fission Product Yields for Reactor Antineutrino Monitoring

Abstract

Fission product yields (FPYs) are important values in nuclear databases with great impact in nuclear reactor development and national security simulations. They also provide a potential solution to the reactor antineutrino anomaly, with implications for nuclear nonproliferation and monitoring efforts worldwide. The isotopes which have been identified as most critical for addressing the anomaly are Rubidium-92 and Yttrium-96. This thesis reports the first direct measurements of the FPYs of the largest contributors to the anomaly, Rubidium-92 and Yttrium-96, from fission induced by epithermal neutrons. The first measurements of the FPYs of Strontium-96 and the metastable state of Yttrium-96 at epithermal neutron energies are also provided, as well as the first measurement since 1975 of that for Krypton-92.