Identification of spontaneous fission fragments by using thermally annealed PADC films

One of main requirements in applied nuclear physics is the need of a detector capable of detecting and differentiating different particles. Thus, the fission products from a 252 Cf radioactive source, after about 12 half-life periods of alpha decay, are registered using virgin and annealed CR-39 polyallyldiglycol carbonate (PADC) lms. In the case of virgin CR-39, a single peak appears corresponding to the heavy group of these products, while the other peak related to the light group is obscured. The annealed CR-39 detectors, on the other hand, were demonstrated to be highly sensitive to the fission fragments, and as a result we have observed the characteristic twin peaks of fission fragments from that radioactive source.