Since its discovery in the 1930s fission has been a key tool in the quest to better understand nuclear physics. The dynamics of fission depend on the interplay of the strong and Coulomb forces. The masses and charges of the resultant fission fragments are driven by the microscopic (quantized) nature of nucleons in the nucleus. Here we explore a new method for measuring fission properties of radioactive nuclei in inverse kinematics using an Active Target (AT) Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The experiment was performed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL). It measured the He fusion-induced fission of neutron-deficient nuclei in the lead region. We present initial charge (Z) distributions for $^{204}$At, the most abundant species measured, at excitation energies less than 52 MeV. A complete analysis of the data from the experiment will provide cross-section and charge distribution measurements along the transition region from symmetric to asymmetric fission in this region of the charge of nuclei.To facilitate this work, a new beam particle identification system was developed. We call this system the HEavy Isotope Tagger (HEIST). Here we successfully demonstrate the tagging of heavy (Pb-like), incompletely stripped beam particles at $\sim75$ MeV/A. In addition, we also provide measurements of the charge state distributions for some nuclei in the beam. These are compared to the charge state model GLOBAL, where we find good agreement if we adjust the velocity of the beam in the GLOBAL model.
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