Fast-neutron-induced fission cross section of Pu(242) measured at the neutron time-of-flight facility nELBE

The fast-neutron-induced fission cross section of ²⁴²Pu was measured at the neutron time-of-flight facility nELBE. A parallel-plate fission ionization chamber with novel, homogeneous, large-area ²⁴²Pu deposits on Si-wafer backings was used to determine this quantity relative to the IAEA neutron cross-section standard ²³²U(n, f ) in the energy range of 0.5 to 10 MeV. The number of target nuclei was determined from the measured spontaneous fission rate of ²⁴²Pu. This helps to reduce the influence of the fission fragment detection efficiency on the cross section. Neutron transport simulations performed with GEANT 4, MCNP 6, and FLUKA 2011 are used to correct the cross-section data for neutron scattering. In the reported energy range the systematic uncertainty is below 2.7% and on average the statistical uncertainty is 4.9%. The determined results show an agreement within 0.67(16)% to recently published data and a good accordance to current evaluated data sets.