FAST PULSED REACTORS FOR NEUTRON PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS


I.M. Frank, V.I. Luschikov and E.I. Sharapov

Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research,
Dubna, Head Post Office Box 79, 101000 Moscow, USSR


Fast pulsed reactors IBR-2 and IBR-30 are in routine use in the Laboratory of Neutron Physics, JINR, Dubna. Their today characteristics and performances are reported. The IBR-2 in use for condensed matter research is mentioned. Some results of nuclear physics experiments conducted during the recent years at the IBR-30 reactor working with a linear accelerator as an injector are reviewed. The fields of research under discussion are: p-wave neutron resonance spectroscopy and parity nonconservation; differential scattering cross sections and p-wave neutron strength functions; cascade γ-transitions and peculiarities of the nuclear structure; prompt γ-ray yields and characteristics of the U-235 fission induced by resonance neutrons.

KEYWORDS: neutron sources, pulsed reactors, polarized neutrons, parity violation, neutron scattering, strength functions, gamma-ray spectrum, nuclear structure, fission gamma-rays, fission fragments