The ISAC radioactive beams facility in Canada: Progress and plans

Abstract

In 1995 the Governments of Canada and British Columbia jointly funded the installation of a high intensity, thick target, ISOL (Isotope Separator, On-Line) based, accelerated radioactive beams facility. This facility, named ISAC (Isotope Separator and ACcelerator) will take advantage of the high intensity (100 microamps), intermediate energy (500 MeV) proton beam available at TRIUMF to produce a wide range of radioisotopic ion beams. Beams with masses below 30 will be accelerated to energies from 0.15 to 1.5 MeV/u, an energy range optimal for studies important for understanding explosive nucleosynthesis in cataclysmic events in the universe. There will be two main experimental areas, one using only the mass separated, radioactive beam in studies such as fundamental interactions, material science, and nuclear structure, and the second using the accelerated beam for nuclear physics and astrophysics studies. Operations into the first area are expected to commence in November of this year. This report will provide a summary of the scientific program planned for the first years of operation along with a brief report of the facility.