Photofission enables a unique capability for the domain of non-chemical space propulsion. An ultra-intense laser enables the capacity to induce nuclear fission through the development of bremsstrahlung photons. A fundamental architecture and performance analysis of a photofission pulsed space propulsion system through the operation of an ultra-intense laser is presented. A historical perspectiv...

Total photofission cross sections for 238U, 235U, 233U, 237Np, 232Th, and natPb have been measured simultaneously, using tagged photons in the energy range Egamma=0.17-3.84 GeV. This was the first experiment performed using the Photon Tagging Facility in Hall B at Jefferson Lab. Our results show that the photofission cross section for 238U relative to that for 237Np is about 80% over the entire...

A PARRNe 1 experiment (Production d’Atomes Radioactifs Riches en Neutrons) aimed at the production of neutron-rich radioactive noble gases produced by photofission has been performed at CERN. The LEP Pre-Injector (LPI) has been used to deliver a 50 MeV electron beam. The results obtained show clearly that the use of an electron beam to produce neutron-rich fission fragments for futur RNB facili...

The empirical-phenomenological quasi-deuteron photofission description is theoretically justified within the semiclassical, intermediate statistics model. The transmutational fermion (nucleon) boson (quasi-deuteron) potential plays an essential role in the present context and is expressed in terms of thermodynamical and of microscopical quantities, analogous to those commonly used in the superf...

Few data exist regarding the yields and time spectra of delayed neutrons from photofission reaction on actinides. In this paper, we report characteristics both six-group eight-group neutron models for 238 U induced by a Bremsstrahlung photon spectrum with an end-point energy at 9 MeV. This study was conducted using MeV linear electron accelerator housed SAPHIR platform located CEA Paris-Saclay,...

In the frame of a long-term research program on characterization large radioactive waste packages by photofission, Nuclear Measurement Laboratory CEA IRESNE, France, has measured cumulative photofission yields 235U and 238U short-lived long-lived fission products using Bremsstrahlung photon beam produced 16 MeV electron linear accelerator (LINAC). To this aim, been carried out activation analys...

Measurements are presented of the photofission cross section and the mean number fi of neutrons per fission for 232Th made using bremsstrahlung from the Harwell electron linear accelerator HELIOS and a high efficiency neutron detector to record neutron multiplicity distributions. The cross section is interpreted in terms of a fission barrier with shallow wells in two separate outer barriers. In...