ANL, Argonne, USA
ANL, Argonne, USA
The CARIBU (the CAlifornium Rare Ion Breeder Upgrade) project at ATLAS is based on the creation of beams of neutron-rich nuclei produced as fission fragments from the 3% fission branch that occurs naturally in the decay of Cf-252. These fission fragments are thermalized in ultrapure helium gas and turned into a charged beam for use by the ATLAS accelerator or ‘stopped’ beam experiments. This requires a very thin source, electroplated on a stainless steel or platinum backing so that the fission fragments escape into the helium gas and are efficiently thermalized and collected into an ion beam. The information learned from the successive use of two sources with strengths of 2 mCi and 100 mCi has now prepared us for the installation in mid-summer of a 500 mCi source recently produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This paper will describe the radiological monitoring system and our experience with the two weak “open” sources which have exercised and tested our radiological controls, emissions monitors, and procedures for the CARIBU facility and the source transfer area.
ANL, Argonne, USA
BINP SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
BNL, Upton, Long Island, New York, USA
A high-efficiency charge breeder based on an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) to increase the intensity and improve the purity of accelerated neutron-rich radioactive ion beams is being developed by the ANL Physics Division. The design of the EBIS charge breeder is complete and manufacturing of the components and sub-systems is in progress. A 6-Tesla superconducting solenoid and a high-perveance electron gun were recently delivered and successfully commissioned. The current status of the ANL EBIS development and commissioning results of different EBIS sub-systems will be presented.
ANL, Argonne, USA
University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
INL, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
ISU, Pocatello, Idaho, USA
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Racah Institute of Physics, Jerusalem, Israel
CEA Cadarache, Saint Paul Lez Durance, France
A project using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is underway at the ATLAS facility to measure the atom densities of transmutation products present in samples irradiated in the Advanced Test Reactor at INL. These atom densities will be used to infer effective actinide neutron capture cross-sections ranging from Thorium to Califorium isotopes in different neutron spectra relevant to advanced fuel cycles. This project will require the measurement of many samples with high precision and accuracy. The AMS technique at ATLAS is based on production of highly-charged positive ions in an ECRIS followed by injection into a linear accelerator. We use a picosecond laser to ablate the actinide material into the ion source. We expect that the laser ablation technique will have higher efficiency and lower chamber contamination than sputtering or oven evaporation thus reducing ‘cross talk’ between samples. In addition a multi-sample holder/changer is part of the project to allow for a quick change between multiple samples. The results of off-line ablation tests and first results of a beam generated by the laser coupled to the ECR will be discussed as well as the overall project schedule.