Spontaneous Fission Yields from Uranium and Thorium

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Abstract
Relative spontaneous fission yields from uranium and thorium have been determined by extracting xenon krypton from geologically old uranium and thorium minerals and measuring the isotopic abundances of these gases in a mass spectrometer. Arguments are presented for believing that the anomalous isotopic abundances observed are caused by spontaneous fission rather than by some other fission process. The spontaneous fission yield curve peaks were found to be much sharper than those associated with other fission processes. Evidence was found for fine structure in the fission yield curve at mass 132, possibly connected with preferential formation of spontaneous fission fragments containing 50 protons and 82 neutrons. Evidence for neutron induced fission in pitchblende was found.