Ion source-uranium target system for the Buenos Aires ISOL facility

Abstract

This paper is devoted to describing the ion source-plus-uranium target assembly recently made operational in the Buenos Aires ISOL facility (IALE project). As has been described elsewhere [1] the IALE Project was designed on the basis of Scandinavian-type isotope separator, an uranyl stearate target and the use of the themial neutron flux generated by an electrostatic accelerator. The very convenient target-ion source geometry, the high separator efficiency and the absence of the contaminations allowed us to work succesfully for several years with rare gas isotopes (Kr and Xe) [2]. In the interest of widening the field of nuclear spectroscopy studies, a new ion source plus uranium target has been designed, able to handle non gaseous fission producís. The idea was to take advantage of the fast diffusion rates of many elements in carbón at moderately high temperatures and shortening the “transit time” by incorporating the target in the ion source discharge chamber. This very convenient property of carbon is well known, but there are not many examples of systems with target and ionizer in the same active volume [3]. The uranium, as a fine grained powder of U02, was mixed with graphite powder and glued with “UCAR” (cement Grade C-34) [4] special high temperature adhesive to a cylindrical graphite cloth that fits the inside diameter of the discharge chamber.