Neutron-induced cross sections of actinides via the surrogate-reaction method

The surrogate-reaction method is an indirect way of determining cross sections for reactions that proceed through a compound nucleus. This technique may enable neutron-induced cross sections to be extracted for short-lived nuclei that otherwise cannot be measured. However, the validity of the surrogate method has to be investigated. In particular, the absence of a compound nucleus formation and the J super([pi]) dependence of the decay probabilities may question the method. In this work we study the reactions super(238)U(d,p) super(239)U , super(238)U( super(3)He,t) super(238)Np, super(238)U( super(3)He, super(4)He) super(237)U as surrogates for neutron-induced reactions on super(238)U, super(237)Np and super(236)U, respectively, for which good quality data exist. The experimental set-up enabled the measurement of fission and gamma-decay probabilities. The first results are hereby presented.