The following report discusses the construction of two heavy-ion linear accelerators, one at the the University of California Radiation Laboratory and the other at Yale University. The goal for these accelerators is to produce ions of masses up to that of neon with energies of 10 Mev per nucleon.

Report discussing theoretical exploding wire phenomena calculations made with an IBM 704 lagrangian code. Calculations were made under different conditions and assuming instantaneous energy deposition in the wire.

Abstract: The alpha to beta ratio of naturally occurring radioactivity in the air has been investigated. The study has concerned itself primarily with radon daughter products collected on filter-paper samples from the time equilibrium has been established on the paper through elapsed times during which radioactive counting is normally accomplished. Calculations showing the change in this ratio of activities during the above period are presented. From this work it appears that the observed constancy of ratio does have theoretical justification and that departures in alpha-to-beta ratio would be a usable approach to the detection of long-lived alpha or beta radioisotopes in the atmosphere.

The last fifteen years have seen the discovery of ten transuranic elements. This paper (presented at the Mendeleev Chemistry Conference in Moscow) deals only with the transplutonium elements, i.e., those elements with atomic number greater than 94. This will be a detailed discussion of the techniques that have been devised for producing and identifying elements 101 and 102 and the possible applications of these methods to elements beyond. There will also be a brief review of the discovery of all the transplutonium elements to show the gradual change in experimental methods from the early days.

It is the purpose of this paper (from a talk given at Mendeleev Chemistry Conference in Moscow) to give a brief progress report on work which is being done on very heavy elements at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. The subject matter is divided into three broad classifications. The first classification includes production of the isotopes, the second deals with investigations of their chemical properties and the third includes studies of the nuclear properties.

A group at the Berkeley Bevatron constructed a rapid beam ejector to produce the brief pulses of particles required for optimum bubble chamber photographs. Energy stored in a capacitor bank is transferred to an air-core magnet surrounding the proton beam of the Bevatron. The protons are displaced from their normal orbit and strike a suitably located target; particles from this target can then emerge from the Bevatron. A capacitor bank of 120 pf stores 13,500 joules at 15,000 volts. Two ignitrons in parallel connect the capacitor to the magnet. The magnet current rises to 52,000 amperes in 55 microseconds; at peak current a register is connected in parallel to damp the current decay.