Re-measuring the half-life of $^{60}$Fe

A recent experiment both at PSI and at Munich on the $^{60}$Fe lifetime points to a T$_{1/2}$ for $^{60}$Fe that is possibly 70{\%} higher (i.e. $\sim $2.6x10$^{6}$ years) than the presently accepted value (1.5x10$^{6}$ years). $^{60}$Fe is mainly produced in core collapse supernovae explosions and these new results open up a number of questions as many factors scale with this number; from the $^{60}$Fe abundance determination with gamma ray telescope measurements to recent $^{60}$Fe(n, $\gamma )$ cross section studies. We are presently working on a double-pronged attempt at re-measuring this half-life using the ``old'' AMS technique used by the Kutschera group in 1984 as well as a low-background activity measurement on the growth of $^{60}$Co from the decay of $^{60}$Fe. Both rely however on a clean production of a $^{60}$Fe sample as measurements rely on measuring the $^{60}$Co decay $\gamma $-line from $^{60}$Co produced by the decay of $^{60}$Fe. Beam time was made available at the NSCL to produce a well characterized $^{60}$Fe sample at the focal plane of the A1900. The $^{60}$Fe ions were implanted in a high purity Al target. We will report the results from this run as well as from the chemical separation of the $^{60}$Fe and first measurements of the sample.