Despite the winter weather, including more than 50 cm of snow in December, construction continued on the new office wing and the new experimental area for research with stopped and reaccelerated rare isotope beams at the NSCL at MSU. Construction milestones achieved by the end of 2008 included: completing the steelwork for the new experimental area; tearing down one of the original wings of the NSCL building to make space for the new offices; completing the office foundations and underground utilities; and drilling the well for the lift shaft. Work continues on the steel superstructure for the new office block and on masonry for the new experimental area, which is scheduled to be enclosed in February.
Image credit: NSCL.
Indoors, meanwhile, faculty and staff at the NSCL are making strides towards implementing new research capabilities related to a new accelerated beam facility, ReA3. This upgrade, which includes a new linear accelerator and a new experimental area, is funded by MSU and should begin commissioning in early 2010.
ReA3 will provide unique low-energy, rare-isotope beams, which will be produced by stopping fast, separated rare isotopes in a gas-stopper and then reaccelerating them in a linear accelerator. It will make available reaccelerated beams of elements that are typically difficult to produce at facilities based on isotope separation on-line. Among the science opportunities that ReA3 will open is the possibility of measuring a remaining set of nuclear-reaction rates that are necessary for accurate models of nova nucleosynthesis and studying how exotic nuclei with large neutron halos interact at large intranuclear distances.
The balcony that will hold ReA3 and the electron-beam ion trap (EBIT) for charge breeding is complete and ready for devices to be mounted. Development continues on the various components to stop, transport, charge-breed and reaccelerate rare isotopes. These components include the linear gas stopper; the low-energy beamline system from the gas stopper to the EBIT and to the new stopped-beam area; the EBIT charge breeder and mass separator; and the linac.
