Fission-Product Decay Studies at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams Decay Station

Project overview

The Facility for Rare Isotopes Beams (FRIB) will be the flagship facility in low-energy nuclear physics when it comes online in 2022. The b-decay properties of neutron-rich isotopes will be measured with the FRIB Decay Station, a sophisticated state-of-the-art modular multi-detector system envisioned to perform b, g, n, and charged-particle spectroscopy. In this feasibility study, we used nuclear decay data collected with the FRIB Decay Station precursor, the Beta-Counting Station, currently used at Michigan State University, with a radioactive beam produced at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory to identify the FRIB Decay Station capabilities for future measurements of neutron-rich exotic nuclei at FRIB to help provide a path forward for future measurements of interest to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's mission.

Mission impact

The FRIB Decay station will provide a new and unique capability enabling access to numerous radioisotopes in unprecedented quantities and at higher purities than previously available. With this system, decay data on short-lived neutron and proton-rich isotopes as well as their decaying isobars will be available for high-priority measurements of interest to the community and Lawrence Livermore. As a result, measurements of decay properties such as half-lives or gamma-ray transition intensities of radioisotopes important to national security needs will be feasible in the coming years. Generating a shortlist of priority measurements important to national security needs is the next priority. This research advances Livermore's core competency in nuclear, chemical, and isotopic science and technology, as well as NNSA's stockpile stewardship mission.