BEARS: radioactive ion beams 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 Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) 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. A test program is currently being conducted at the $88″$ Cyclotron to develop the parts of the BEARS system. Preliminary results of these tests lead to projections of initial $11C$ beams of up to $2.5×107 ions/sec$ and $14O$ beams of $3×105 ions/sec.$