Breeding 10~(10)/s Radioactive Nuclei in a Compact Plasma Focus Device

摘要

In the early 90's, it was discovered that a Plasma Focus (PF) system self-creates a plasma-target in which high energy-threshold nuclear-reactions occur at high reaction rates. Short life radioisotopes (SLR)s such as ~(18)F, ~(17)F, ~(15)O, ~(14)O, ~(13)N have been generated (10~6 - 10~8 per pulse) with a PF-machine using 7 kJ energy storage to produce the plasmas, β~- radioactivity from the SLRs is measured with rugged, Geiger counters inserted into the PF-chamber, and a specific SLR is identified by its half-life. The PF chamber (before discharge) is filled with a mixture of gases that constitutes the latter plasma-target - beam system, e.g., the elements required to produce specific SLRs through nuclear reactions. In this paper, arguments are presented showing that a modest sized PF-machine, using a 50 -75 kJ fast capacitor-bank, when operated at pulse frequencies of 1-10 Hz can produce ≥ 10~9 SLRs/pulse. This paper reports the results of testing a PF as a breeder of SLRs with dual applications for: (ⅰ) Secondary Radioactive Nuclear Beams ion-sources (Z < 35), and (ⅱ) as a breeder of radioisotopes for biomedicine (Z ≤ 10) and/or PET imaging.