The surrogate-reaction method is an indirect way of determining cross sections for reactions that proceed through a compound nucleus. This technique may enable neutron-induced cross sections to be extracted for short-lived nuclei that otherwise cannot be measured. However, the validity of the surrogate method has to be investigated. In particular, the absence of a compound nucleus formation and the Jπ dependence of the decay probabilities may question the method. In this work we study the reactions 238U(d,p)239U, 238U(3He,t)238Np, 238U(3He,4He)237U as surrogates for neutron-induced reactions on 238U, 237Np and 236U, respectively, for which good quality data exist. The experimental set-up enabled the measurement of fission and gamma-decay probabilities. The first results are hereby presented.
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