Abstract :
Fission is a very powerful mechanism to produce neutron-rich beams with energies around the Coulomb barrier. A novel concept has been proposed by J. Nolen: fast neutrons may be used without dissipating too much power in the fissioning target. We will review data both on neutron production and on the fission cross section of 238U. We will go over the R&D work with the PARRNe collaboration (Production dʹAtomes Radioactifs Riches en Neutrons) currently under way at IPN Orsay along with the results obtained within the European program SPIRAL II involving several laboratories (GANIL, IPN Orsay, Louvain-la-Neuve, KVI and Jyväskylä). Finally, we will discuss the different facilities relying on this scheme that have been proposed like Argonne, INFN, SPIRAL II at GANIL.
