Accelerators for the advanced exotic beam facility in the U.S.

The Office of Science of the Department of Energy is currently considering options for an advanced radioactive beam facility in the U.S which is a reduced scale version of the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) project [1,2]. This facility will have unique capabilities compared with others both existing and planned elsewhere. As envisioned at ANL, the facility, called the Advanced Exotic Beam Laboratory (AEBL), would consist of a heavy-ion driver linac, a post-accelerator and experimental areas. Secondary beams of rare isotopes will be available as high quality reaccelerated or stopped beams from a gas catcher and high power ISOL targets, as well as, high energy beams following in-flight fragmentation or fission of heavy ions. The proposed design of the AEBL driver linac is a cw, fully superconducting, 833 MV linac capable of accelerating uranium ions up to 200 MeV/u and protons to 580 MeV with 400 kW beam power. An extensive research and development effort has resolved many technical issues related to the construction of the driver linac and other systems required for AEBL. This paper presents the status of planning, some options for such a facility, as well as, progress in related R&D.