MISTRAL: The beginning of a new mass measurement program at ISOLDE

The MISTRAL* experiment is now on-line at ISOLDE. Installed in May 1997, MISTRAL received its first stable beam in October and first radioactive beam in November 1997. These first tests, with a plasma ion source, resulted in excellent isobaric separation and reasonable transmission. Further testing and development enabled first data taking in July 1998 on neutron-rich Na isotopes having half-lives as short as 31 ms.