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The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix currently does not satisfy unitarity at the 2σ-level. This could be the result of an inaccurate value of one or both of its largest matrix elementsV_usandV_ud. In the case ofV_ud, the most precise measurement is obtained from thef t-value measurements of superallowed beta-transitions between 0⁺states. The accuracy of this determination can, in turn, be tested by extractingV_udin other transitions including superallowed transitions between mirror nuclei. The Superallowed Transition Beta-Neutrino Decay Ion Coincidence Trap (St. Benedict) is currently under construction at the Nuclear Science Laboratory of the University of Notre Dame to perform such a determination, with the goal of shedding more light on this tension with unitarity. St. Benedict will take a radioactive ion beam produced byTwinSol, thermalize it in a large volume gas catcher, then transport it in two separate differentially-pumped volumes using a radio-frequency (RF) carpet and a radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ) ion guide before injecting it in an RFQ trap to create cool ion bunches for injection in the measurement Paul trap. In this paper, we detail the installation of the beam preparation components of St. Benedict, and present the results of the first RIBs successfully stopped and extracted from its gas catcher. 

A question for decades has been the potential production of heavy or superheavy elements in nature. Once the nuclear weapons tests showed that elements heavier than the Uranium were found in the debris, it was clear that a rapid neutron capture process followed by beta decay was creating heavier elements. The next question was the location of the r-process end? What other heavy elements are made? Did nature make the superheavy elements via the r-process too? The answer is yet to be found. There are many indications that it probably did but the definitive evidence is yet to surface. The laboratory experiments with neutron rich beams and neutron rich targets via cold and hot fusion reactions have created a number of new isotopes in addition to the elements that have completed the periodic table. Furthermore, the new superheavy element factory at the JINR in Dubna has now allowed the identification of over one hundred decay chains of the various isotopes of superheavy elements connecting to the main part of the chart of nuclides via decays. This is where we should look for the definitive evidence for the production of the superheavy elements in nature. 

This paper will provide a historical analysis of the impact of the US Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1945 and the subsequent nuclear test program 1945-1970 towards the development of the field of Nuclear Astrophysics and the interpretation of nuclear reaction processes in stars and explosive stellar environments.