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Status Report on the SARAF Accelerator Project Phase I


  Amichay Perry [1]  ,  Dan Berkovits [1]  ,  Ilan Eliyahu [1]  ,  Isaac Gertz [1]  ,  Asher Grin [1]  ,  Shlomi Halfon [1]  ,  Geoff Lempert [1]  ,  Israel Mardor [1]  ,  Ami Nagler [1]  ,  Jacob Rodnizki [1]  ,  Leonid Weissman [1]  ,  Kai Dunkel [2]  ,  Michael Pekeler [2]  ,  Chirstian Piel [2]  ,  Peter vom Stein [2]  ,  Alexander Bechtold [3]  
 [1] Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Yavne
[2] RI Research Instruments GmbH, Germany
[3] NTG, Gelnhausen, Germany

The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility, SARAF, is currently under construction at Soreq NRC. SARAF will be a multi-user facility for basic, medical and biological research, non-destructive testing (NDT) and research, development and production of radio-isotopes for pharmaceutical purposes. SARAF is based on a continuous wave (cw), proton/deuteron RF superconducting linear accelerator with variable energy (5-40 MeV) and current (0.04-2 mA). Phase I of SARAF has been installed and is currently being commissioned at Soreq NRC. According to the Phase I design, SARAF should yield 2 mA proton and deuteron beams at energies up to 4 and 5 MeV, respectively. The status of the main Phase I components is reported. We further present beam commissioning results, which include acceleration of a 1 mA CW proton beam up to 3 MeV. Further improvements in the facility in order to achieve the desired performance are discussed.