Fission Products (by Element) - Krypton-83, 84, 85, 86

Krypton-83, 84, 85, 86

Krypton-85, half-life 10.76 years, is formed by the fission process with a fission yield of about 0.3%. Only 20% of the fission products of mass 85 become 85Kr itself; the rest passes through a short-lived nuclear isomer and then to stable 85Rb. If irradiated reactor fuel is reprocessed, this radioactive krypton may be released into the air. This krypton release can be detected and used as a means of detecting clandestine nuclear reprocessing. Strictly speaking, the stage which is detected is the dissolution of used nuclear fuel in nitric acid, as it is at this stage that the krypton and other fission gases like the more abundant xenon are released.

Increase of fission gases above a certain limit can lead to fuel pin swelling and even puncture, so that fission gas measurement after discharging the fuel from the reactor is most important to make burn-up calculations, to study the nature of fuel inside the reactor, behaviour with pin materials, for effective utilization of fuel and also reactor safety.