COMMISSIONING AND INITIAL OPERATION OF THE ISOTOPE PRODUCTION FACILITY AT THE LOS ALAMOS NEUTRON SCIENCE CENTER (LANSCE)

The recently completed 100-MeV H + Isotope Production Facility (IPF) at the LANSCE will provide radioisotopes for medical research and diagnosis, for basic research and for commercial use. A change to the LANSCE accelerator facility allowed for the installation of the IPF. Three components make up the LANSCE accelerator: an injector that accelerates the H+ beam to 750-KeV, a drift-tube linac (DTL) that increases the beam energy to 100-MeV, and a side-coupled cavity linac (SCCL) that accelerates the beam to 800-MeV. The transition region, a space between the DTL and the SCCL, was modified to permit the insertion of a kicker magnet (23 o kick angle) for the purpose of extracting a portion of the 100-MeV H + beam. A new beam line was installed to transport the extracted H+ beam to the radioisotope production target chamber. This paper will describe the commissioning and initial operating experiences of IPF.