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Durability of targets and window foils irradiated by intense heavy ion (HI) beams in the experiments on synthesis of superheavy nuclei, which are carried out in Dubna with Gas-Filled Recoil Separator (DGFRS), has been viewed in various ways. High fluxes of HI and heat generations, which are realized within relatively small areas and thicknesses of these elements of DGFRS, are inherent in such experiments. The lifetimes of the targets and window foils are estimated as the result of HI beam actions such as radiation damages, sputtering and evaporation of atoms. The most critical processes determining the durability of the targets and window foils are discussed. The processes of heat transfer due to thermal conductivity, convection and radiation are also considered from the point of view of possible ways of cooling of the elements irradiated by an intense HI beam. Temperatures of the targets and window foils as functions of time are calculated in the conditions of their pulse heating by the beam followed by radiative cooling of their surfaces. Such pulsing mode is realized in the DGFRS operation with the rotation of target and window foils irradiated by a continuous HI beam. Estimates show that radiative cooling in such conditions can be the most effective way of heat removal at the temperature of several hundred degrees. Such temperature can be reached on the surfaces of the target and window foils irradiated by HI beams at the intensity ~1013 s–1.

We have studied mass-energy distributions (MED) of fission fragments using two projectile-target combinations, 12C + 204Pb and 48Ca + 168Er, leading to the same compound nucleus 216Ra at the excitation energy E*∼40 MeV. It has been found that the contribution of the asymmetric mode in the case of the former reaction is 1.5%, and it is 30% in the case of the latter one. We connect such a sharp increase in the yield of asymmetric products in the 48Ca + 168Er reaction with the quasifission process, the MED of which have a clearly expressed shell structure. The characteristics of the fission fragment MED are of such a kind that they can be interpreted by analogy with the low-energy fission of heavy nuclei as a manifestation of an independent mode of nuclear decay which competes with the classical fusion-fission process.

Within the past twelve years, the recoil separator VASSILISSA has been used for the investigations of evaporation residues produced in heavy-ion-induced complete fusion reactions. In the course of the experimental work, fourteen new isotopes have been identified by the parent-daughter correlations in the region of elements with 92≤Z≤94. The study of the decay properties and formation cross sections of the isotopes of elements 110, 112, and 114 was performed using high-intensity 48Ca beams and 232Th, 238U, and 242Pu targets. At the beam energies corresponding to the calculated cross-section maxima of the 3n evaporation channels, the isotopes 277110, 283112, and 287114 were produced and identified. For further experiments aimed at the synthesis of the superheavy element isotopes (Z≥110) with the use of intensive 48Ca extracted beams, improvements in the ion optical system of the separator and the focal plane detector system have been made.