Feasibility studies towards future self-sufficient supply of the (99)Mo-(99m)Tc isotopes with Japanese accelerators.

In order to establish a self-sufficient supply of (99m)Tc, we studied feasibilities to produce its parent nucleus, (99)Mo, using Japanese accelerators. The daughter nucleus, (99m)Tc, is indispensable for medical diagnosis. (99)Mo has so far been imported from abroad, which is separated from fission products generated in nuclear reactors using enriched (235)U fuel. We investigated (99m)Tc production possibilities based on the following three scenarios: (1) (99)Mo production by the (n, 2n) reaction by spallation neutrons at the J-PARC injector, LINAC; (2) (99)Mo production by the (p, pn) reaction at Ep = 50-80 MeV proton at the RCNP cyclotron; (3) (99m)Tc direct production with a 20 MeV proton beam from the PET cyclotron. Among these three scenarios, scenario (1) is for a scheme on a global scale, scenario (2) works in a local area, and both cases take a long time for negotiations. Scenario (3) is attractive because we can use nearly 50 PET cyclotrons in Japan for (99m)Tc production. We here consider both the advantages and disadvantages among the three scenarios by taking account of the Japanese accelerator situation.

Spallation ultracold neutron source of superfluid helium below 1 K.

For the production of high-density ultracold neutrons (UCNs), we placed 0.8 K superfluid helium in a cold neutron moderator. We resolved previous heat-load problems in the spallation neutron source that were particularly serious below 1 K. With a proton-beam power of 400 MeV×1 µA, a UCN production rate of 4 UCN cm(-3) s(-1) at the maximum UCN energy of E(c)=210 neV and a storage lifetime of 81 s were obtained. A cryogenic test showed that the production rate can be increased by a factor of 10 with the same storage lifetime by increasing the proton-beam power as well as (3)He pumping speed.

Developments of real-time emittance monitors.

Under the upgrade program of an azimuthally varying field (AVF) cyclotron in progress at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), an emittance monitor is being developed to improve the beam injection efficiency from ion sources to the AVF cyclotron. In order to evaluate the quality of the beams extracted from ion sources quickly, we developed the Pepper-Pot type Emittance Monitor at the RCNP. After improving an analysis method for emittance estimation using LabVIEW, we achieved a measurement frequency of 4 Hz.

Development of an 18 GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source at RCNP.

An 18 GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source has recently been developed and installed in order to extend the variety and the intensity of ions at the RCNP coupled cyclotron facility. Production of several ions such as O, N, Ar, Kr, etc., is now under development and some of them have already been used for user experiments. For example, highly charged heavy ion beams like (86)Kr(21+,23+) and intense (16)O(5+,6+) and (15)N(6+) ion beams have been provided for experiments. The metal ion from volatile compounds method for boron ions has been developed as well.

A design study for a compact two stage in-flight separator with a high mass resolution and large acceptance.

The rare isotope beam separator with a large angular acceptance and energy acceptance is essential for examining the characteristics of unstable nuclei and exotic nuclear reactions. Careful design, however, is required to compensate for the effects of high order aberrations induced by large aperture magnets, which are used to collect rare isotopes obtained from a high energy primary heavy-ion beam hitting a target. In order to minimize the effect of the high order aberration, the optics was based on the mirror symmetry optics, which provides smaller high order aberrations, for the separation of (132)Sn produced by a fission reaction between the primary beam of (238)U and a relatively thick Pb target. The designed optics provides energy acceptance (full), horizontal angular acceptance, and vertical acceptance of approximately 8%, 60 mrad, and 130 mrad, respectively.

Production of highly charged heavy ions by 18 GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance at Research Center for Nuclear Physics.

An 18 GHz superconducting electron cyclotron resonance ion source has been installed as a subject of the azimuthally varying field cyclotron upgrade project (K. Hatanaka et al., in Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Cyclotrons and Their Applications, Tokyo, Japan, 18-22 October 2004, pp. 115-117), in order to increase beam currents and to extend the variety of ions. The production development of several ions has been performed since 2006 and some of them have already been used for user experiments [T. Yorita et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 79, 02A311 (2008)]. Further optimizations for each component such as the material of plasma electrode, material, and shape of bias probe and mirror field have been continued and more intense ion beams have been obtained for O, N, and Ar. For the purpose of obtaining highly charged Xe with several microamperes, the optimization of position and shape of plasma electrode and bias disk has also been done and highly charged Xe(32+) beam has been obtained successfully.