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Thursday, March 14

The LANL Isotope Program: Recent Advances

Meiring Nortier , Los Alamos National Laboratory , Los Alamos, NM
Physics Division Seminar
3:00 PM — 4:00 PM, Building 6008, Large Conference Room
Contact: Alfredo Galindo-Uribarri (uribarri@ornl.gov ), 865.574.6124

Abstract

The LANL Isotope Program: Recent advances Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has a long history of producing radioisotopes for applications in medicine, biology, nuclear physics, and national security. From 1974 to 1998 isotopes were produced via spallation using an 800-MeV proton beam available from the original Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) linear accelerator. Since then, the LANL radioisotope program has upgraded its capabilities and commissioned in 2004 a new 100 MeV Isotope Production Facility (IPF) at the same accelerator, presently known as the Los Alamos Neutron Science Centre (LANSCE). Today the IPF is one of two accelerator based facilities used by the National Isotope Program. It has been instrumental in providing isotopes to domestic and international customers like GE Healthcare, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a variety of research institutions. With a proton beam current of up to 250 µA and more, this large-scale isotope production facility plays a lead role globally in pushing the envelope of isotope science and high power accelerator targets. The LANL isotope program is supported by a growing R&D program covering major aspects such as high power accelerator targetry, nuclear cross section data, separation chemistry and various isotope applications. This seminar will provide an overview of the LANL isotope program and will highlight some of the more recent R&D activities with a focus on the physics and engineering aspects.