BEARS: A radioactive ion beam initiative at LBNL

BEARS is an initiative to develop a radioactive ion-beam capability at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The aim is to produce isotopes at an existing medical cyclotron and to accelerate them at the 88″ Cyclotron. To overcome the 300-meter physical separation of these two accelerators, a carrier-gas transport system will be used. At the terminus of the capillary, the carrier gas will be separated and the isotopes will be injected into the 88″ Cyclotron’s Advanced Electron Cyclotron Resonance ion source. The first radioactive beams to be developed will include 20-min 11C and 70-sec 14O, produced by (p, n) and (p, α) reactions on low-Z targets. Tests at the 88″ Cyclotron lead to projections of initial 11C beams of 2×108 ions/sec 14O beams of 1×106 ions/sec. Construction of BEARS is expected to be completed in the spring of 1999.