Production and release of ISOL beams from molten fluoride salt targets

Abstract

In the framework of the Beta Beams project, a molten fluoride target has been proposed for the production of the required 10(13) Ne-18/s. The production and extraction of such rates are predicted to be possible on a circulating molten salt with 160 MeV proton beams at close to 1 MW power. As a most important step to validate the concept, a prototype has been designed and investigated at CERN-ISOLDE using a static target unit. The target material consisted of a binary fluoride system, NaF:LiF (39:61 mol.%), with melting point at 649 degrees C. The production of Ne beams has been monitored as a function of the target temperature and proton beam intensity. The prototype development and the results of the first online tests with 1.4 GeV proton beam are presented in this paper. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.