Heavy‐Particle Accelerators

CONSTRUCTION of two $1.2 million linear accelerators (one at Yale University and the other at the University of California Radiation Laboratory) has been authorized by the Atomic Energy Commission, according to an announcement made on May 20th. Both instruments will accelerate heavy particles (atomic nuclei ranging from beryllium, with an atomic weight of 9, to neon, with an atomic weight of 20) to an energy of approximately ten Mev for each particle in the nucleus. This will be sufficient to allow the nuclei to interact with even the heaviest known elements. The accelerator at UCRL will be used primarily in nuclear chemistry studies such as the possible production and identification of new elements and new isotopes of known elements. The Yale machine will be used principally in studies of the physics of heavy particle nuclear interactions.