“Raon’s first ray is finally out!”
The site of the international conference “EMIS 2022 (International Isotope Separation Device Conference)” held at the Daejeon Institute of Basic Science (IBS) Science Culture Center on the 7th. Surprising news was provided to the researchers of the IBS Heavy Ion Accelerator Research Center before the closing of the conference. At 3:04 pm that day, the news was that the first beam had been withdrawn from the Korean heavy ion accelerator “RAON”.
The IBS researchers announced the news with closing remarks and there were cheers and cheers from physicists around the world who attended the conference. The “largest scientific facility since Dangun”, which started conceptual design in 2010, has shed light for the first time in 12 years. This shows that a large-scale research facility designed and manufactured with our technology works well for its intended performance.
▲ Officials are taking commemorative photo after withdrawing the first beam from the Korean Heavy Ion Accelerator ‘RAON’ on the 7th. ⒸBasic Science Institute (IBS)
130 football fields, the largest research facility in Korea
“Unfortunately, on the last day of the international conference, the first beam was withdrawn and we were able to deliver the news to researchers around the world in real time. The researchers who attended the conference also visited the Raon site in anticipation that the heavy ion accelerator built by Korea could be used soon. As soon as the first button is in place, researchers from around the world will gather here to find the answers to humanity’s “big question”.
▲ The main building of the Daejeon IBS Heavy Ion Accelerator Research Center was visited on the 13th. ⒸScience Times Kwon Ye-seul
Director Seung-woo Hong, who met at the IBS Heavy Ion Accelerator Research Center in Daejeon on the 13th, explained the significance of the first ray extraction, saying, “It means that the huge scientific infrastructure designed and manufactured with the our technology works as well as designed. “
RAON is a heavy ion accelerator designed and manufactured with pure Korean technology with an investment of KRW 1,518 trillion from 2011 to date. An accelerator is a device that accelerates particles to high speeds. The name and purpose vary depending on the material to be accelerated. Heavy ion accelerators literally accelerate heavy ions, i.e. heavy ions. Raon aims to become the largest linear accelerator in the world for the acceleration of heavy ions. The area of the site alone is 952,066 square meters, which is equivalent to the area of 130 football fields.
Supergiant microscope examining atomic nuclei
Raon examines the world of femtometers (fm‧1fm is one trillionth of a meter) using heavy ions as material. In addition to nanoscience observing molecules, femtoscience explores the atomic nucleus at the center of the atom and the protons and neutrons that make up the atomic nucleus.
At least 1 million eV (electron volts) of energy is required to see the nucleus of an atom. When a voltage of 1 V is applied to the cylinder, the kinetic energy of the electrons when they reach one end is 1 eV. To realize 1 million eV, 1 million 1V batteries can be connected in series. Assuming a battery is 1cm long and the price is 1,000 won, you need to connect a battery worth 1 billion won in a length of 10 km to see into the nucleus of an atom. An accelerator is a device developed to more simply obtain a higher voltage.
▲ Raon low energy acceleration section (SCL3). Here, the heavy ions are accelerated to a speed of 12% of light. ⒸScience Times Kwon Ye-seul
In fact, Raon’s correct name is “Rare Isotope Accelerator”. It is a device that produces rare isotopes that do not exist in nature and accelerates them to the desired energy. Atomic nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons and, depending on the combination, different isotopes are formed. Isotopes are elements with the same number of protons (atomic number) but different masses due to the different number of neutrons. For example, hydrogen with 1 proton is called hydrogen, deuterium and tritium when it has 0, 1 and 2 neutrons respectively. These are all isotopes of hydrogen.
Depending on the combination of protons and neutrons, there can be more than 10,000 isotopes. However, only 3,000 isotopes of 118 elements have been discovered so far. About 7,000 isotopes do not exist in nature and disappear in an instant even if created artificially. This is why they are called rare isotopes. Heavy ion accelerators are the only technology capable of creating and observing rare isotopes.
There are two methods of generating rare isotopes using heavy ion accelerators which have been discovered so far. By analogy, the “ISOL” method for hitting rocks with eggs and the “IF” method for hitting eggs with rocks. The former has advantages in that it generates a large amount of rare isotopes and the latter in that it can generate various types of rare isotopes. Heavy ion accelerators around the world use one of the ISOL and IF generation methods depending on the purpose of the research, and Raon was designed to use both methods simultaneously for the first time in the world. This increases the likelihood of discovering newer and rarer isotopes.
▲ Two methods of generating rare isotopes using heavy ion accelerators. ISOL accelerates the collision of ions of light elements with thick targets. Since multiple nuclear reactions occur as the target is thick, a large amount of rare isotopes are produced in a single collision. On the other hand, IF accelerates ions of heavy elements and collides with targets consisting of light elements, and in this process rare isotopes are extracted from fragments of heavy elements. Since the ion beam energy is high, many types of rare isotopes can be obtained. ⒸInstitute of Basic Sciences (IBS)
The government initially designed three types of accelerators to generate isotopes. After four changes to the plan, the installation of the low-energy acceleration section, one of the three accelerators, was completed in December 2021. In the low-energy acceleration section with a length of approximately 95.5 m, heavy ions can increase the energy of the heavy ions to 18.5 million eV through 54 acceleration modules. The heavy ion beam is then accelerated to 12% of the speed of light.
In the experiment conducted on the 7th, a test operation was performed using the front-end acceleration module of 5 units out of 54 units, and as a result, the energy of the heavy ion beam reached 700,000 eV. In a press release distributed on the 12th, the Ministry of Science and ICT said: “If you compare it to a car, it can be seen as a successful low-speed driving test in first gear after completing production. and starting the engine to check if the main devices are working normally. ” has explained. The IBS Heavy Ion Accelerator Research Center plans to conduct a beam extraction test by gradually increasing the acceleration test section with the goal of putting the entire low-energy accelerator section into service in March next year.
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