Rare processes of spontaneous and forced fission of heavy nuclei

We propose to study the spontaneous fission of the Cf-252 isotope and the fission of the U-238 nucleus by 17 MeV protons into three fragments, as well as the "fission isomers" of the U-238 nuclei formed at interaction with a 17 MeV proton beam. For this purpose we will create two modern scientific devices. The nuclei are usually split into 2 fragments. The fission of nuclei into 3 heavy fragments discovered recently and the formation of “fission isomers” in nuclear interactions are quite rare occurrences. As compared to the probability of fission into 2 fragments, that of fission into 3 approximately equal mass fragments or formation of "fission isomers" is 10-3-10-6 times lower. For this reason, the mentioned processes have been studied poorly, although their properties are important to describe correctly the structure of nuclei and super dense stars as well as the processes that take place in nuclear reactors. The low-pressure multiwire proportional chambers developed in the A. Alikhanian National Laboratory and the system of scanning of keV electrons with GHz RF as well as the 18 MeV proton cyclotron would allow us to carry out new research in this complex field of experimental nuclear physics.