Connecting the Super-Heavy Island to the Nuclear Mainland

The reactions between radioactive actinide targets and doubly-magic $^{48}$Ca beam led the identification of 6 new super-heavy elements (SHE) and 48 nuclei. Since the observed decay chains are ended by a fission process, these super-heavy nuclei are forming an isolated island in the nuclear chart. The HRIBF development of new detector system and digital data acquisition sensitive to very short-lived $\alpha$-emitters made possible to attempt the studies extending the SHE island. The experiments aiming in new nuclei produced in the reactions with $^{248}$Cm and $^{239,242}$Pu targets and $^{40,44,48}$Ca projectiles and connecting the SHE island to the known nuclear mainland will be discussed.