The new CERN-ISOLDE on-line mass-separator facility at the PS-Booster

The ISOLDE on-line isotope separators have been operated since 1967 at the CERN-SC. This 600 MeV proton synchro-cyclotron had to be shut down in December 1990 after 33 years of service and it was decided to move ISOLDE to a new experimental area. The new on-line mass-separator facility is now under construction at the CERN PS-Booster. This accelerator provides an average current of about 2 μA of 1 GeV protons in very short high intensity pulses at low repetition rate. The beam can hit either one of the two target stations, the general purpose separator (GPS), a reconstructed ISOLDE-2 type machine (which can deliver beams simultaneously into three beam lines), and the high resolution separator (HRS), which is essentially the slightly modified ISOLDE-3 separator. The central GPS beam line and the HRS feed a common beam transport system to which most of the experiments will be connected. The new facility will be taken into operation in spring 1992.