88-Inch Cyclotron operations

The 88-Inch Cyclotron, operated by the Nuclear Science Division, provides a large fraction of the beam time that is used by Division scientists. Variable energy high resolution beams from hydrogen through argon are produced and used for studies of nuclear structure and nuclear reaction mechanisms. The cyclotron is also the Laboratory's major source of medical isotopes and its only source of polarized proton and deuteron beams. Ions as heavy as 40Ar can be accererated to the Coulomb barrier of 5 MeV/nucleon, while lighter heavy ions can reach 20-30 MeV/nucleon. The cyclotron thus operates in the important transition region between low and high energies: 10-30 MeV/nucleon. As a national accelerator laboratory the 88-Inch Cyclotron is used extensively by outside groups from many institutions in the US and abroad. The 88-Inch Cyclotron also plays a significant educational role. In 1983 twelve graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley employed this facility in their research toward the Ph.D. degree. Five students received their doctorates from UCB in 1983 for research done at the cyclotron. Eleven graduate students from other universities participated in research at the cyclotron. The cyclotron now operates 14 1/2 eight hour shifts per week with one additional shift for maintenance at the beginning of the week and one half shift for shutdown for the weekend. It was operated for 20 shifts per week until October 1981 when increased power rates and budget limitations made the reduction in running time necessary. Several improvement programs are ongoing