Pushing Boundaries at the 88-Inch Cyclotron*

by Dr Mathis Wiedeking (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA, USA)

Tuesday 21 May 2024, 11:00 → 13:00 Europe/Rome

C. Villi meeting room

The 88-Inch Cyclotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) supports ongoing research programs in heavy element studies, nuclear data for societal needs, and technology R&D. 

Efforts to synthesize elements beyond oganesson (Z=118) will push the limits of current technology due to the expected low production cross sections and short half-lives for these elements. The 88-Inch Cyclotron plans to host a new element search involving long running periods of intense 50Ti beams on actinide targets.

On the applications side, the 88-Inch Cyclotron provides a unique environment for conducting radiation effects testing at the Berkeley Accelerator Space Effects (BASE) Facility, offering well-characterized beams of protons, heavy ions, and other medium-energy particles to simulate the space environment. The National Security Space (NSS) community and researchers from other government, university, commercial, and international institutions use these beams to understand the effect of radiation on microelectronics, optics, materials, and cells.

The Nuclear Data group at the 88-Inch Cyclotron, in close collaboration with the Nuclear Technology Innovation Laboratory (NTIL) at the University of California – Berkeley, connects nuclear techniques and expertise with government programs and industry partners for the treatment of disease, the generation of carbon-free energy, as well as domestic and international security and non-proliferation. The current activities range from neutron scattering and neutron capture programs to R&D in isotope production, fission, and properties of the nuclear quasi-continuum.

 

*Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics under Contracts No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.