Radioactive beam facilities of North America

Abstract

There are several nuclear physics laboratories in North America that have on-going research using energetic and stopped radioactive beams. These include the large ISOL-based programs ISAC at TRIUMF in Canada and HRIBF at Oak Ridge and the in-flight fragmentation program at the NSCL of Michigan State University. There are also smaller, more specialized, programs using a variety of techniques at ATLAS at Argonne, the Cyclotron Institute of Texas A&M University, the Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Notre Dame University, the 88-inch cyclotron of Berkeley, and the Nuclear Structure Laboratory at SUNY/Stony Brook. A major upgrade of the NSCL, the Coupled Cyclotron Project, was recently completed, resulting in driver beams at higher energies and intensities than previously available. A major improvement of the ISAC facility is also in progress. ISAC is being upgraded to provide higher energies and a broader range of masses in the ISAC II project with an ECR charge state booster and a superconducting linac to provide energies of 6.5 MeV/u for masses up to A=150. In the United States the construction of a next-generation facility, the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA), is being planned. RIA will have a very high-intensity, up to 400 kW, superconducting heavy-ion driver linac which will provide beams from protons to uranium. This facility utilize both ISOL and in-flight production mechanisms. Many laboratories and universities nation-wide are participating in the R&D program for this future facility.