FIRST EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF SHELS: A NEW HEAVY ION SEPARATOR AT THE JINR

A new Separator for Heavy ELement Spectroscopy (SHELS) has been recently installed at the U-400 accelerator at FLNR, JINR in Dubna, Russia. The details of the upgrade as well as the results from some of the commissioning runs are discussed. In particular, transmission tests with the Pb-208(Ar-40, 2-3n)(245-6) Fm reaction, as well as isomer spectroscopy results for Ra-210 produced in Dy-164(Ti-50, 3-5n)Ra209-11 reaction are presented.