Breeding 10 to the 10th power/s Radioactive Nuclei in a Compact Plasma FocusDevice

摘要

In the early 90's, it was discovered that a Plasma Focus (PF) system self-createsa plasma-target in which high energy-threshold nuclear-reactions occur at high reaction rates. Short life radioisotopes (SLRs) such as 18F, 17F, 15O, 14O, 13N have been generated (10 6-10 8 per pulse) with a PF-machine using 7 kJ energy storage to produce the plasmas. B 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.