THE HOLIFIELD RADIOACTIVE ION-BEAMS FACILITY (HRIBF) - GETTING READY TO DO EXPERIMENTS

The conversion of the HHIRF facility to a radioactive ion beam facilit y started in 1994. In this ISOL type facility the cyclotron has been r e-fitted as a driver providing high intensity proton beams which react with the target from which the radioactive products are extracted and then accelerated in the tandem electrostatic accelerator to the desir ed energy for nuclear science studies. Facilities for nuclear physics experiments are at different stages of development: A recoil mass spec trometer (RMS) with a complement of detectors at the focal plane and a round the target is used primarily for nuclear structure studies. A la rge recoil separator combining velocity and momentum selection, with i ts complement of focal plane detectors, will be dedicated to measureme nts relevant to nuclear astrophysics. The enge split pole spectrograph is being re-fitted for operation in a gas filled mode, making it a mo re versatile tool for nuclear reaction studies. With the new experimen tal equipment being commissioned and the prospects of running experime nts with low intensity radioactive beams a significant effort to devel op equipment for beam diagnostics is underway. Some of our efforts and results in developing beam diagnostic tools will be described.