Abstract.We report the first measurement of the total charge-loss cross section Gtot=aem+anuo and partial cross sections (for AZ = 1, 2, ... After presenting our data, we focus on the problem of disentangling two modes of high-energy nucleus-nucleus interactions -a nuclear mode which takes place when a relativistic projectile and a target pass each other within the range of the strong force and an electromagnetic mode which occurs at larger impact parameters such that only the virtual photons from either the target or the projectile can interact with the other. Particle telescopes [2][3][4][5][6][7], plastic track detectors [8][9][10][11][12], and nuclear emulsions [13,14] have been used to separate nuclear and electromagnetic contributions to charge-changing interactions of projectiles, and gamma-ray spectroscopy [15][16][17][18] and particle telescopes [2,3,7,19] have been used to study nuclear and electromagnetic processes in which neutrons are emitted from a target. In all these experiments it is assumed that, if the impact parameter is less than a critical value, roughly the sum of radii of projectile and target, the interaction is purely nuclear; if not, it is purely electromagnetic. In this view the cross section is the sum of the two contributions: