  An experiment on the study of the $^{246}$Fm spontaneous fission was
conducted using the SHELS separator. The isotope was synthesized in the
complete fusion reaction of $^{40}$Ar beam ions and $^{208}$Pb target nuclei.
The neutron yields of $^{246}$Fm spontaneous fission ($\overline{\nu} =
3.79\pm0.30$, $\sigma^{2}_{\nu} = 2.1$) were obtained using the SFiNx detector
system. The multiplicity distribution of emitted prompt neutrons was restored
using the Tikhonov method of statistical regularisation ($\overline{\nu}_{r} =
3.79\pm0.20$, $\sigma^{2}_{\nu r} = 2.8$). The spontaneous fission branching
ratio ($b_{SF} = 0.061\pm0.005$) and the half-life ($T_{1/2} =
1.50^{+0.08}_{-0.07}$ s) of the isotope were determined. The experimental data
were compared with scission point model predictions. Excellent convergence was
observed in the average number of neutrons per spontaneous fission process.
However, the forms of the experimental and model prompt neutron multiplicity
distributions differ significantly.
