Fine structure in the alpha decay of 224 U

224U nuclei were populated in fusion-evaporation reactions using a 206Pb target and an intense 22Ne beam. Fusion-evaporation residues were separated by the new separator SHELS at the FLNR, Dubna and implanted into a large-area double-sided silicon strip detector. Position- and time-correlated alpha decays were used to identify evaporation residues. A new \( \alpha\)-decay line at 8095(11) keV was observed in this work and assigned as the decay from 224U to the first excited 2+ in the daughter nucleus 220Th. Coincident photons were also observed allowing to unambiguously determine the excitation energy of the first excited 2+ state in 220Th to be 386.5(1) keV and not 373.3(1)keV as previously reported. The half-life of 224U was measured to be 396(17)μs.