Novel, High-Efficiency and Clean Plasma Focus Radioactive-Beam Ion-Source for Applications in Nuclear Research and Biomedicine

60668 This project will develop a new ion source for producing rare isotope (RI) beams, used in nuclear physics research, by replacing primary accelerators with the Plasma Focus (PF) machine. The PF Rare Isotopes breeder should produce very intense beams (1010RI/s), be larger by a factor of thousands, save time for experiments, and permit study of problems not otherwise possible. In Phase I, experiments proved 90-95% evacuation of RI from the PF chamber, consistent with the model increase of RI breeding when energy storage was upgraded from W=7kJ to W =18kJ (quadratic increase of breeding with W). Theoretical work estimated that to satisfy the needs of the accelerator at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the leader in nuclear research with Rare Isotopes Beams, the PF machine should have W =75kJ with 2 Hz pulse repetition rate. Phase II will build the PF machine (W =50kJ) to operate in single pulse mode (0.1 Hz) and demonstrate RI breeding efficiency for 17F and other RI. The efficiency of the RI extraction and delivery to external storage will be demonstrated. Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Commercial applications include rare isotopes beams used in nuclear/astrophysical research, biomedicine, and PET¿scan. With Plasma Focus the cost of production, of short live radioisotopes (11C, 13N, 15O, 18F) used in medical diagnostics should be three times lower. Additional competitive advantages, compared to current systems using cyclotrons, include no neutron radiation, no radio-material waste along the reprocessing line, and lower maintenance costs.