Start-Up of the DC-280 Cyclotron, the Basic Facility of the Factory of Superheavy Elements of the Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

Abstract

The basic facility of the Factory of Superheavy Elements (SHE), the DC-280 cyclotron, in the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research has been completed. Both new and experimentally tested engineering solutions of the laboratory underlie the project. Planned beam intensities of up to 10 pμA of ions with average masses (A ~ 50) are one order of magnitude higher than those produced at the U-400 cyclotron up to now. From 2016 to 2018, the DC-280 cyclotron equipment was installation and set up. The first 84Kr14+ ion beam was accelerated in the DC-280 on December 26, 2018, and extracted to the accelerated ion transportation channel on January 17, 2019. In March 2019, beams of accelerated 84Kr+14 ions with an intensity of 1.36 pμA and 12С+2 ions with an intensity of 10 pμA were extracted from the DC-280 to the beam transportation channel with an energy of about 5.8 MeV/nucleon. The main task of the new accelerator is to implement a long-term research program at the SHE Factory aimed at the synthesis of new elements (Z ≥ 119) and a detailed study of nuclear–physical and chemical properties of previously discovered elements nos. 112–118.