THE SPONTANEOUS FISSION OF $sup 244$Cm WITH EMISSION OF A LONG-RANGE /cap alpha/ PARTICLE

The spontaneous fission fragments from /sup 244/Cm were counted on a xenon scintillation detector, whose walls were covered with a layer of sodium salicylate to convert the ultraviolet emission of xenon to visible light. Long- range alpha particles were counted on a CsI crystal 0.8 mm thick. The /sup 244/ Cm was purified from rare earths by elution from a Dowex-50 column with 0.25M alpha -hydroxyisobutyrate at a pH of 4.0. The /sup 244/Cm was mounted on an oxidized aluminum foil with a surface density of 7.1 mg/cm/sup 2/ to discriminate against the 6.15-Mev alpha particles of /sup 244/Cm. The triple fission of / sup 244/Cm was measured continuously for a period of 8 days. A total of 400 spontaneous fission events was recorded with emission of long-range alpha particles. One ternary fission occurred for each 318 plus or minus 25 binary fissions. The most probable energy of the long-range alpha particle is 15.8 plus or minus 1.1 Mev, and the maximum energy is 29.0 plus or minus 1.9 Mev. The most probable energy is 100 Mev for the lighter fission fragment, and 77 Mev for the heavier fission fragment. (TTT)