Beta-delayed fission in the lead region

最近，在2008年，庆祝了1938年由Otto Hahn和Fritz Strassmann发现的核裂变70周年。在发现后的15年里，核裂变及其应用取得了一些里程碑式的进展，其中包括1942年第一个人造核反应堆的建立，第一颗原子弹爆炸（1945年），1951年核反应堆首次发电。世界上第一座商业核电站，位于英国塞拉菲尔德的考尔德霍尔核电站于1956年启用。从那时起，核裂变及其应用在科学和我们的日常生活中变得无处不在。根据世界核协会的数据，在1980年代，全球平均每17天就有一个新的核反应堆启动。2007年，世界上14%的电力来自核能。截至2009年9月，31个国家有436个核电站机组在运行，净发电量约为370吉瓦，15个国家有53个核电站正在建设中，装机容量为47吉瓦。在英国，2009年，近五分之一的电力来自现有的19个核电反应堆。在英国政府2008年1月决定支持建设新的核电站之后，已经宣布了到2017年在英国开设四个新工厂的计划。本标准补助金申请中所述的方案涵盖核裂变研究，具有科学和社会导向的影响和外联。在基础研究方面，我们的研究计划的主要目标之一是更好地了解非常奇特的核的裂变过程和裂变性质。在这个项目中研究的特定类型的核裂变-奇异的β延迟裂变-被认为发生在天体物理学的r过程中，这是宇宙中最重元素的产生。特别是，理论家们认为，β-延迟裂变，连同自发和中子诱导的裂变，负责所谓的裂变再循环和裂变终止的r-过程，后者建立了自然界中最重元素生产的极限。为了实现我们的目标，我们将利用带电粒子，裂变和伽马射线光谱的组合，通过使用三种互补的技术：质量分离器ISOLDE（欧洲核子研究中心，日内瓦，瑞士），速度过滤器SHIP（GSI，达姆施塔特，德国）和裂变光谱仪的日本原子能机构（JAEA，东海，日本）。在社会方面，鉴于英国政府对核能发展的新举措，未来数年将需要许多新的核工业专家。我们的项目，除了纯粹的基础核裂变研究，还将为年轻的研究生和博士后研究人员提供辐射和核裂变应用，探测器和技术，包括核废物管理方面急需的专业培训。

Recently, in the year 2008, the 70th anniversary of nuclear fission, which was discovered in 1938 by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, was celebrated. In the next 15 years since the discovery a few landmark developments in nuclear fission and its application have followed, including among others, the creation of the first man-made nuclear reactor in 1942, the first atomic bomb explosion (1945), the first generation of electricity by a nuclear reactor in 1951. The world's first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Sellafield, England was opened in 1956. Since then, the nuclear fission and its applications became omnipresent both in science and in our day-by-day life. According to the World Nuclear Association, globally during the 1980s one new nuclear reactor started up every 17 days on average. In the year 2007, 14% of the world's electricity came from nuclear power. As of September 2009 in 31 countries 436 nuclear power plant units with an electric net capacity of about 370 GW are in operation and 53 plants with an installed capacity of 47 GW are in 15 countries under construction. In the UK, in 2009, nearly one fifth of the electricity was generated by the existing 19 nuclear power reactors. Following the UK Government's January 2008 decision to support the building of new nuclear power stations, plans have been announced to open four new plants in the UK by 2017. The programme described in this Standard Grant application covers research into nuclear fission and has both scientific and society- oriented impact and outreach. In fundamental research, one of the main goals of our research programme is to achieve a better understanding of fission process and fission properties of very exotic nuclei. The specific type of the nuclear fission studied in this project - the exotic beta-delayed fission - is believed to occur in the astrophysical r-process, which is responsible for the production of the heaviest elements in Universe. In particular, the theorists suggest that the beta-delayed fission, together with the spontaneous and neutron-induced fission, is responsible for the so-called fission recycling and the r-process termination by fission, the latter establishing the limit for the heaviest elements production in Nature. To achieve our goals, we will exploit a combination of charged-particle, fission and gamma-ray spectroscopy by using three complementary techniques: the mass separator ISOLDE (CERN, Geneva, Switzerland), the velocity filter SHIP (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany) and the fission spectrometer of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA, Tokai, Japan). Society-wise, in view of the new initiatives on nuclear power development by the UK government, many new specialists in nuclear industry will be required in the coming years. Our project, apart of pure fundamental nuclear fission research, will also provide the much needed specialized training of the young post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers in the radiation and nuclear fission applications, detectors and techniques, including the nuclear waste management.