The MISTRAL experiment (Mass measurements at ISOLDE with a Transmission and
Radiofrequency spectrometer on-Line), conceived for very short-lived nucli
des, has reached the end of its commissioning phase. Installed in 1997, res
ults have been obtained consistent with all aspects of the projected spectr
ometer performance: nuclides with half-lives as short as 30 ms have been me
asured and accuracies of 0.4 ppm have been achieved, despite the presence o
f a systematic shift and difficulties with isobaric contamination. Masses o
f several nuclides, including Ne25-26 and Mg-32 that forms the famous islan
d of inversion around N=20, have been significantly improved.