Development of radioactive ion beam production systems for Tokai Radioactive Ion Acceleration Complex—High temperature ion source for short-lived isotopes

Abstract

We have developed a new ion source system in the isotope separator on-line at Japan Atomic Energy Agency, for separation of short-lived isotopes produced by proton-induced fission of (238)U. The ion source system is a forced electron beam induced arc discharge version E type ion source with a target container. We successfully operated this system at 2000 degrees C as a result of reductions in volume of the ion source and the target container, introduction of heating method by electron bombardment, and improvement to the heat shield. This new ion source system was tested using (238)U of 640 mg/cm(2) with a proton primary beam of 30 MeV, 350 nA. Release times were measured for Kr, In, and Xe. The values of release times are 2.6 s for Kr, 1.8 s for In, and 4.6 s for Xe. In this work, the ion source system enabled us to mass-separate short-lived isotopes such as (93)Kr(T(1/2)=1.286 s), (129)In(T(1/2)=0.61 s), and (141)Xe(T(1/2)=1.73 s) with intensity of 10(3) ions/s.