The Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds (GANIL) is a multi-beam facility, unique in intensity, particle types and simultaneous production. The Sys-tème de Production d’Ions Radioactifs en Ligne de 2ème génération (SPIRAL2) facility covering an excep-tionally broad intensity range, from nanoamperes to milliamperes further enhances the scientific opportu-nities of the laboratory. The first proton beams from the LINAC were produced in 2019 and is operational for physics experiments since 2022. The cyclotron operation and the initial operational challenges and lessons learned in the first years of operation of the LINAC and Neutrons For Science (NFS) facilities are presented. The physics program at GANIL-SPIRAL2 is briefly presented. The ongoing upgrades and devel-opments essential to sustain increasingly ambitious pure and applied science programs are also presented.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is in the final stages of commissioning its linear accelerator (linac), which will deliver a high-power proton beam for neutron production. The commissioning process involves progressive testing of subsystems, including the ion source, radio-frequency quadrupole (RFQ), and superconducting cavities, to ensure stable and reliable beam operation. Key challenges include beam dynamics optimization, machine protection, and high-power RF system integration. Within this presentation an overview of the commissioning status, key milestones achieved, and expectations for the first beam on target, marking a significant step toward full facility operation could be given.

In a high-energy lepton collider such as the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee) at CERN, several phenomena create a challenging radiation environment for accelerator components and equipment including cables and electronics. This paper examines synchrotron radiation (SR), dominating at the highest beam energies (ttbar) for two different optics schemes. Recent developments in the design of photon stoppers and dedicated radiation shielding are presented, highlighting progress towards a more realistic configuration while maintaining acceptable annual ionizing dose levels. The study covers the contribution of the collider ring and the impact on the attached alcoves, housing radiation sensitive equipment. The absorbed power in accelerator components and the surrounding tunnel environment is evaluated for various operation modes to ensure compliance with the thermal load limits of the ventilation system. Furthermore, radiation and particle fluence levels dominated by photo-neutron production are quantified for the electronics bunkers located below the beamline. These results are used to assess the feasibility of employing radiation-tolerant, commercial-off-the-shelf electronics in these areas.

The China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) accelerator, consisting of a $\rm H^-$ linac and a rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS), is undergoing an upgrade to increase the average beam power to 500~kW. At the CSNS linac, shorted-stripline beam position monitor~(BPM) determines beam position by averaging over the entire macro-pulse. However, significant intra-macropulse beam position fluctuations have been observed in recent commissioning, which may cause undesired beam loss and degrade the injection efficiency. In this work, an intramacropulse beam position is reconstructed method based on the signal integral algorithm. During 2025 autumn and 2026 spring operation, the intra-macropulse beam position behaviors have been uncovered at the MEBT and LRBT sections. Although beam conditions vary between two different experiments, a significant beam position drift during the first~100~{$\mu$s}, with a maximum amplitude of more than 4 mm, has been revealed.

The China Spallation Neutron Source（CSNS） is the first large-scale pulsed spallation neutron source in China and the fourth of its kind in the world. It is a large multidisciplinary user facility. The facility passed national acceptance and officially opened for operation in 2018. It has been in operation for seven years. During this period, the beam power has continually increased, and both the beam runtime and availability have gradually improved. In the 2023-2024 period, it achieved a maximum beam on target time of 5,433 hours and the highest beam availability of 97.4%, which are the best among similar international facilities. This article will comprehensively introduce the operational performance of the accelerator over the past seven years, including annual beam runtime, beam availability, and statistics on hardware system downtime. Additionally, it will briefly discuss some measures taken to enhance operational reliability, including hardware upgrades, software optimizations, and maintenance strategies.

The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) is a new high-intensity fixed-target experiment to be located within the Experimental Cavern North 3 (ECN3) at CERN’s North Area, utilising a 400 GeV proton beam from the SPS. The construction of a Beam Dump Facility (BDF) target complex is required for the successful operation of SHiP. It comprises an underground target station within the Tunnel Target Cave 8 (TCC8) cavern, adjacent to ECN3, which will house a 1.5 m-long, 0.25 m-diameter tungsten target, and an above ground service building that includes the target cooling systems and waste package infrastructure. The required infrastructure to investigate target failures, including the cutting of spent targets and other CERN legacy waste in view of their packaging for disposal, has been studied. This contribution presents the current design status of the target complex, including radiation protection, remote handling, utilities and cooling/ventilation systems, installation and operation procedures, maintenance and decommissioning plans, and sustainability aspects.

The European Laboratories for Accelerator Based Sciences (**EURO-LABS**) programme advances research frontiers by providing unified Transnational Access (**TNA**) to leading European Research Infrastructures (**RI**s) in the Physical Sciences. It brings together the nuclear physics, accelerator, and detector R\&D communities to foster collaboration and stimulate synergies. With 33 partners across Europe, EURO-LABS forms an integrated network of RIs ranging from small-scale test facilities to large European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). The access provided enables research at the technological frontiers of accelerator and detector development, supporting the exploration of new physics concepts and opening new avenues in both fundamental and applied research --- from optimizing reactor operation to mimicking stellar reactions. EURO-LABS actively promotes diversity and inclusion, offering equitable access to researchers across nationalities, genders, ages, and career stages, while strengthening Europe’s collaborative scientific landscape. EURO-LABS started in September 2022 and will conclude in August 2026. This contribution will present highlights of the project’s activities, along with notable experiments and supported research carried out at the participating facilities.

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables new design approaches for accelerator components by allowing internal features, such as conformal cooling channels, to be integrated directly into parts. At the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, development began with a polycarbonate cooling jacket for an RF plasma chamber, later replaced with glass-filled nylon due to sealing limitations. The work was extended to metal AM, including a stainless-steel beam dump produced by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), demonstrating the need for selective post-machining of sealing surfaces. These lessons informed the design of an ion source main flange with internal cooling channels, successfully prototyped, machined, and validated using neutron imaging at the IMAT instrument. Current research focuses on ceramic AM for plasma chambers, integrating cooling channels within the ceramic wall to allow closer RF coil placement. A digital-light-processing (DLP) printed alumina green-body chamber has been produced as a proof of concept, supporting future development in aluminium nitride (AlN) and multi-material ceramic–copper systems for improved thermal management and performance improvements.

The ISIS Neutron and Muon Source has developed a new RF-driven H⁻ ion source to replace the caesiated Penning source in use since the 1980s. The new source operates without caesium and has achieved extracted beam currents of up to 18 mA. To increase the beam current further toward operational requirements, a passive caesium delivery system using Cs₂CrO₄ dispensers has been designed and integrated into the RF ion source. The system releases caesium by heating a Cs collar with the plasma, while forced-air cooling and thermocouples provide temperature control. This paper describes the design, materials, cooling approach, and manufacturing process used to convert the source to a caesiated configuration. Important design features include caesium distribution, thermal isolation between components, and cooling of the main flange. Future work will focus on commissioning the system and optimising caesium delivery for stable, high-current operation.

The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility-DONES (IFMIF-DONES) is a scientific infrastructure intended to test and qualify materials for fusion reactors by exposing them to intense neutron fluxes. Several auxiliary systems will ensure its continuous operation, among which the Heat Rejection System (HRS) is designed to remove and discharge to the environment the heat mainly generated by the Accelerator's primary cooling loops and the Test Cell. While open evaporative cooling towers are widely used for industrial heat rejection, alternative technologies may be more suitable depending on site-specific conditions and project priorities. Environmental factors—particularly local weather patterns and their expected evolution under climate change—play a decisive role in overall system performance. Their proper assessment is therefore essential for selecting the most appropriate cooling-tower technology. This work presents a comparative evaluation of candidate heat-rejection solutions to identify the technology that best fits the site conditions, optimises performance over the system's life cycle, and supports the project's commitment to minimising its environmental footprint.

A novel compact neutron source driven by *deuteron Cyclotron Auto-Resonance Accelerator* (dCARA) is under development to produce neutrons via breakup of high current 40-MeV deuterons on a low-Z target. Compared to the proton-based *Accelerator-Driven Systems* (ADS), a dCARA system can be much more compact and cost effective, with notable features including continuous acceleration without bunching for good beam stability, high efficiency, wide beam aperture, and an exceptionally short length of few meters. The applications of dCARA include transmutation of used nuclear fuel, medical isotope production system, or material test for a future fusion power reactor. The R&D progress and the conceptual design of dCARA are reported here.

ESS-Bilbao, JCNS, and LLB joined forces to develop Europe’s first HICANS  Platform (HiCANS stands for "High Current Accelerator-driven Neutron Source"). This project aims to integrate the high current proton accelerator system, currently under construction at ESS Bilbao, with the target-moderator-reflector unit that has been successfully built and operated at Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the HERMES reflectometer and Be target owned by LLB. This facility intends to validate and demonstrate the technological developments that will take part of these medium-flux neutron sources.  In this demonstrator, the first stage of the ARGITU source will be used to produce a pulsed proton beam with an energy of 3 MeV and a period of 30 Hz to hit a Lithium target, generating neutrons that are moderated at the desired thermal and cold energy ranges that will be utilized by the HERMES neutron reflectometer.  The instrument has undergone upgrades and improvements, since it was first installed in the COSY platform, such as the installation of a methane moderator, which has increased the reflectivity signal by a factor of two. The installation of the instrument in ESS-Bilbao premises will help to continue its experimental program, as well as paving the way to future integration of neutron scattering and imaging instruments at higher accelerator power.

The proposed energy upgrade of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) incorporates Fixed-Field Alternating-gradient (FFA) arcs utilizing permanent magnet technology. Given the radiation environment within the CEBAF tunnel enclosure, validating the long-term magnetic stability of these materials is a critical step for the project's technical feasibility. This contribution presents an overview of the ongoing permanent magnet radiation resiliency program at Jefferson Lab. We briefly review the experimental methodology used to monitor demagnetization in situ and summarize the operational experience from the initial data-taking campaign. Furthermore, we discuss the upgrades implemented for the second exposure campaign, currently underway, which aims to refine dose correlation and reduce systematic uncertainties. We report on the general status of the program and the roadmap for certifying permanent magnet optics for the proposed upgrade energies.

Since the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) was officially commissioned in 2018, its operational performance has been continuously improved. To date, the beam power has reached 185 kW, which is 85% higher than the design value, with a stable annual beam delivery time of more than 5000 hours and good overall operational reliability. The vacuum system serves as the core support for stable beam transport, mainly consisting of the Linear Accelerator (LINAC), Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), LowEnergy Beam Transfer Line (LRBT), and HighEnergy Beam Transfer Line (RTBT). In addition, supporting vacuum systems for application beamlines such as APEP and Backn have been developed, with operating vacuum pressures ranging from 10⁻³ Pa to 10⁻⁷ Pa.The firstphase vacuum system is equipped with 294 ion pumps, 64 cold cathode gauges, 12 turbo molecular pumps, and more than 600 vacuum pipelines. After nearly ten years of operation, the vacuum system has remained stable overall; however, typical faults such as DTL leakage, bellows corrosion, vacuum gauge fluctuation, and vacuum chain fracture have occurred. Based on practical operational experience, this paper systematically summarizes fault characteristics, analyzes fault mechanisms, and proposes corresponding countermeasures, providing a reference for the stable operation of vacuum systems in similar accelerators.The CSNSII project was officially launched in 2024 to meet the 500 kW highpower requirement, with a fiveyear construction plan focusing on superconducting cavities, highenergy proton beamlines, and a muon beamline. The vacuum system has been comprehensively upgraded based on the firstphase configuration. Meanwhile, this paper presents the latest development progress of the CSNSII vacuum system.

A 280-MeV electron linear accelerator has been designed to expand the research capabilities and applications of high-energy electron beams in Thailand. For commissioning and energy verification, two dedicated beam dumps are positioned downstream of the bending magnet. This work presents the simulation-based design and optimization of these beam dumps using the PHITS Monte Carlo radiation transport code. Different material configurations and geometries were evaluated to reduce prompt radiation and suppress secondary particle leakage. A multilayer structure combining high-Z and low-Z materials was found to provide effective energy absorption while confining photon and neutron secondaries within the shielding volume. The resulting radiation field in the tunnel meets all applicable safety criteria and regulatory limits. These results establish the validated baseline design for the beam dumps and support their transition to detailed engineering and fabrication.

Neutron guide tubes are used to transport neutrons efficiently. However, it requires very precise alignment, which is costly and vulnerable to shocks from earthquakes and other incident. It also is very sensitive to the surface condition such as cracks or dusts on the mirror. We are developing a new type of neutron mirror by utilizing the deflection of neutrons in a gradient magnetic field. This paper presents experimental results obtained using neutron beams at SOFIA (MLF).

European accelerator research involves more than 150 institutions –research and technology infrastructures, universities and industry– meaning that impactful R&D requires large, well-structured collaborations among all innovation actors. The European Commission’s framework programmes can play a strategic role in enabling these collaborations, but their effectiveness depends on coherent organisation at the community level. Established in 2002 as ESGARD, the TIARA (Test Infrastructure and Accelerator Research Area) collaboration was created to promote and coordinate participation in EC calls. Its first major R&D project, CARE, began in 2004, followed by EuCARD, EuCARD2 and ARIES, and later by the innovation oriented I.FAST (2021-25). In parallel, TIARA supported 17 other projects, including design studies for new infrastructures and ESFRI-linked initiatives, securing €130 million in EC funding over 21 years, complemented by more than €200 million from partners. This paper outlines TIARA’s vision to promote multi-platform collaborative accelerator R&D, broaden the impact of the European accelerator science and technology, and plans to strengthen its role within future EC programmes.

The CERN Innovation Programme on Environmental Applications (CIPEA) was launched in 2022 as a call for ideas to stimulate novel environmental applications based on CERN’s technologies, scientific expertise and unique research infrastructure. CIPEA has since evolved into an integrated framework encompassing many CERN initiatives aimed at generating environmental impact beyond the Organization’s own operational footprint. More than 25 projects are currently being developed with external partners, primarily from industry, drawing on competences integral to accelerator science, including superconductivity, high-field magnets, materials, cryogenics, vacuum systems, radiofrequency technologies, cooling and ventilation, and laser beams. Activities are structured around four key application areas: renewable and low-carbon energy; clean transportation and future mobility; climate-change mitigation and pollution control; and sustainability and green science. CIPEA is largely externally funded, with over 80% of its resources contributed by partner organizations. This paper outlines the programme’s overall strategy, describes the priority development axes within each application area, provides an overview of ongoing efforts and highlights selected flagship projects that exemplify CIPEA’s innovation potential.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) accelerator delivers different beams to multiple experimental stations simultaneously. These beams have different intensity and time structure. The LANSCE Accelerator Modernization Project (LAMP) seeks to upgrade the technology in the front-end while preserving the unique capabilities of LANSCE. LAMP seeks to replace the two 750-keV Cockroft-Waltons with a single Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ), and a new 100-MeV Drift Tank Linac (DTL). Procurements represent a significant portion of the project’s funding and drive schedule decisions. We discuss the process to procure major accelerator components for LAMP and focus on the RFQ and DTL first tank procurements.

Intra-beam stripping (IBSt) is a critical beam-loss mechanism in high-intensity H- linacs and presents a significant limitation to increasing beam power. This work presents a computational framework to evaluate IBSt-induced beam losses along the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) linac for arbitrary bunch distributions. The calculation is based on evaluating the IBSt loss integral using a probability density function (PDF) trained on discrete-particle bunch distributions with normalizing flows. The input distribution is transformed to scaled normal-form coordinates, which improves both normalizing-flow training and Monte Carlo (MC) sampling. The method is benchmarked against simplified analytically solvable Gaussian bunches and then applied to canonical-angular-momentum-dominated (CAM-dominated) beam distributions, which contains strong inter-plane correlations. The results show that the normal-form-coordinate approach improves MC sampling stability and enables efficient IBSt loss calculations for correlated beam distributions.

A 3-GeV proton beam from a rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) is provided to muon and neutron production targets at Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility by a 3-GeV RCS to Neutron facility Beam Transport (3NBT) line in J-PARC. In the 3NBT line, the 3-GeV proton beam is deflected in the vertical direction due to fringe field of a large aperture solenoid for capturing secondary particles from the muon production target located approximately 30 m upstream of the neutron production target. For correcting the orbit deflection and eventually the vertical beam position on the neutron production target, the beam position was measured as function of excitation currents for the coils of the solenoid. In this presentation, we report results of the measurement analysis and the orbit correction based on the empirical analysis.

The Frankfurt Neutron Source (FRANZ) at the Institute for Applied Physics in Frankfurt (IAP) is advancing toward the commissioning of proton beams up to 2 MeV. To support beam tuning behind the RFQ–IH acceleration chain, a dedicated diagnostics section is being installed downstream of the IH structure. The setup focuses on transverse beam characterization using scintillation screens combined with radiation-tolerant camera systems, enabling multi-angle (two-view) imaging of the proton beam under various beam-current and RF settings. Additional instruments include phase probes for energy and RF-phase monitoring, as well as a Faraday cup for current measurements. The camera-based diagnostics are designed to provide reliable visual feedback during early commissioning, particularly in an environment with limited access and the radiation levels typical for this region of the accelerator. This contribution presents the concept, implementation approach, and intended diagnostic capabilities of the camera-driven setup as FRANZ prepares for subsequent steps toward routine 2 MeV operation and the following delivery of the proton beam onto the lithium target for the first neutron production campaigns.

Time-of-flight (TOF) measurements are superior to other methods of measuring beam energy, since the quantity being measured is directly related to the velocity, and therefore the kinetic energy, of the particles. Conventional TOF systems use independent sensors in the beam transport system, each with a separate signal path to the measuring electronics. The difference in signal delay between the paths introduces an absolute error in the measured time. Increasing the flight time can help to reduce the impact of this error. For this reason, a flight path length of several metres is usually applied between the sensors. A novel method and device have been developed for accurate TOF measurements on a base as short as 20 cm. Two capacitive pickups in a common mechanical structure with an additional electrode are used. The signals from the probes are combined within the vacuum chamber, resulting in a single signal path from the sensor unit to the measuring electronics. Digital signal processing (DSP) is used to determine the distance between the pulses generated by a beam bunch on the probes. The construction details of the sensor unit and the applied digital signal processing (DSP) method, as well as the accuracy of the measurements achieved when operating with accelerated beams from a cyclotron, will be presented.

The SOLEIL II storage ring upgrade project aims at reducing drastically the horizontal emittance of the electron beam from 4 nm.rad for the present ring down to 80 pm.rad for the SOLEIL II new 4th generation storage ring. It is based on the replacement of the present double bend achromat by a mixed multi bend achromat, the so-called 4BA-7BA lattice [*] and a general use of permanent magnets for both dipoles and quadrupoles. The corresponding long shutdown is scheduled between end of 2028 and end of 2030, when user operation will resume. Compared to the present storage ring, SOLEIL II will operate with a significant reduced beam lifetime and, consequently, with increased beam loss rates. This leads to many challenges in terms of Radiation Safety and Radiation Damage assessments. This paper will present the main characteristics of the SOLEIL II storage ring upgrade and the corresponding main challenges in Radiation Safety to maintain the Experimental Hall as a non-radiation area. A detailed shielding design study is required by the French Nuclear Regulation Authority (ASNR) as a basis of the authorization request that SOLEIL will submit to recover license from ASNR prior to restart the accelerators by the end of 2029. This paper gives also a status of the shielding design study mainly driven by extensive use of the FLUKA Monte Carlo code [**], the remaining radiation safety challenges to cope with and the foreseen effects of ionizing radiation exposure of the permanent magnets.

For the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), the rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS) accumulates and accelerates the injection beam to the design energy of 1.6 GeV and then extracts the high energy beam to the target. In this paper, firstly, the beam commissioning of the RCS have been comprehensively studied, including new injection system commissioning, longitudinal dynamics optimization, beam instability mitigation, tune optimization, closed orbit correction, beam loss optimization, bayesian optimization and so on. In order to meet the requirements of beam power increase and stable operation of the CSNS accelerator, the RCS beam losses from different sources are studied and optimized. With the aid of weekly radiation dose measurement, the hot spots of the RCS are studied in depth to explore the causes and find the solutions. Secondly, as the second phase of the CSNS, CSNS-II will achieve a beam power on the target of 500 kW. The injection energy of CSNS-II will be increased from 80 MeV to 300 MeV and the injection beam power will be increased about 20 times. In this paper, the challenges and solutions of the CSNS-II RCS will be introduced and the upgrade of the RCS will be studied. Based on the detailed simulation results and beam experimental results, the upgrade schemes of the critical systems for the CSNS RCS has been proven feasible.

Neutrons are an indispensable tool for science and industry to study the structure and dynamics of matter from the meso to the pico scale and from seconds to femtoseconds. An attractive way to provide urgently needed neutrons in the near future is to build efficient high-current, accelerator-based neutron sources (HiCANS) using pulsed proton beams. A new national research infrastructure that benefits significantly from these developments will be the High Brilliance Neutron Source (HBS-I), which was recently shortlisted by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFRT). HBS-I uses pulsed 100 mA high-current proton beams to generate neutrons through a low-energy nuclear reaction at 20 MeV in a target material, which requires less radiation shielding and moderator cooling compared to conventional neutron sources. The facility is designed to produce small-diameter neutron beams, enabling experiments with smaller sample volumes. This will support research in materials and life sciences, including materials for energy conversion and storage, nanomaterials, quantum materials, protein structures, and biomaterials. The facility is intended for use by a multidisciplinary community of universities, research institutions, and industry. The basic concept and its realization will be presented.

In this paper we describe the static tuning procedure of the ARGITU/HiCANS-platform RFQ at ESS-Bilbao. The machining and assembly of the RFQ were finished during 2025. The cavity is a 3.1 meters long, 4-vane cavity operating at 352.2 MHz. It will accelerate a 40 mA (designed up to 65 mA) proton beam from 45 keV to 3.0 MeV. The RFQ will operate at 1% duty cycle in the first stages of the ARGITU HICANS platform, and later as the injector of the linac at a maximum duty cycle of 5%. The static tuning of the cavity has been carried out combining the field profiles measured by a bead-pull technique with the aid of both a conventional "SVD" algorithm and a novel genetic algorithm that was required due to the available tuners range at the operational frequency. The whole procedure and the results are described in this paper, as well as other tests at low power RF and with the cooling water in operation. The stability of the field profiles and the cavity frequency with respect to the cooling water temperature are also investigated.

The ARGITU RFQ at ESS-Bilbao is a 352.2 MHz, 4-vane RFQ that will accelerate protons from 45 keV to 3.0 MeV. The RFQ is a 3.1 meters long structure machined in OHFC copper of high purity, and no brazing has been used to assemble the vanes that conform each of the four segments. The cooling of the structure is carried out by cooling channels that runs longitudinally along the vane tips and transversal in the vacuum grid region. In a first stage, the RFQ will operate at a maximum duty cycle of 1%, and for this stage a first version of the water cooling skid has been designed, built and tested. The vane cooling channels in this setup runs in series from segment to segment allowing a simpler design. A dedicated chiller that provides great stability and control has been integrated in the system, as well as water flow and temperature valves and sensors monitored using IO link technology. The cooling water skid, the tests performed with the RFQ and their correlation with FEM simulations are described in this paper. The dynamic tuning of the RFQ during conditioning and operation are also described.

IFMIF-DONES is an ESFRI facility based on a 40 MeV, 5 MW beam power deuteron accelerator and a liquid lithium target currently under construction in Granada (Spain) as part of the European roadmap to fusion electricity. Its main goal is to characterize and qualify materials under a neutron field with an induced damage similar to the one expected in a fusion reactor, developing a material database for the future fusion nuclear power plants. Moreover, a number of medium neutron flux experiments in other irradiation areas for fusion and non-fusion applications have been proposed and are under analysis. Although the construction phase is ramping up, the European EURATOM Project DONES-ConP1 has been directed at the preparation of the key documentation and to consolidate contributions from the parties. In this contribution, the main outcomes of the project, such as the first proposal of the DONES Experimental Programme, consolidation of the DONES users community, users and machine interfaces, the evolution of the ideas for the complementary experiments, organization and project documentation for safety licensing will be presented and described.

The Frankfurt Neutron Source FRANZ is a compact-accelerator driven neutron source based on the $^7Li(p,n)^7Be$ reaction using a 2 MeV proton beam. Following successful stand-alone RF conditioning of the IH-DTL up to 10 kW cw, the coupled RFQ-IH-DTL cavity was assembled, tuned and conditioned up to 200 kW. First beam experiments have been performed, demonstrating proton acceleration to 2 MeV. We report on the high-power conditioning, coupling and llrf tuning procedure, as well as initial beam commissioning results.

The Bonn Isochronous Cyclotron provides light ion beams with a charge-to-mass ratio Q/A ≥ 1/2 and kinetic energies ranging from 7 to 14 MeV per nucleon to one of five experimental sites. It is planned to extend the facility’s irradiation and experimentation capabilities by providing a neutron beam at one of the experimental areas in the near future. The neutrons are produced in a thick carbon converter through the deuteron breakup and proton stripping reactions. Protons are stopped in the converter whereas the neutrons’ flux and angular energy distribution is optimized by a subsequent copper/tungsten collimator. Geant4 simulations were done and benchmarked against literature in preparation. The predicted neutron yield is in the order of 1e7 neutrons/s, the beam profile is a circular flat top beam with a FWHM of approx. 4 cm and energy distribution is centered around 10 MeV. The beam profile was measured by using a 2D-Line-Scan with a scintillator with n-gamma discrimination properties. The energy distribution will be measured with activation foils. This contribution gives an overview of the setup and compares the simulated beam profile with experimental measurements.

We present beam dynamics studies for the future compact accelerator neutron source HiCANS platform, carried out with the simulation RF-Track code. The simulations were used to optimize the layout and geometry of various components of the beam line. The results are compared to other codes and measurements. The studied beamline consists of the LEBT with two solenoids, an RFQ and a dogleg style transfer line. The RFQ was modeled using fine-grained field maps. The simulations were used to optimize the LEBT geometry for maximum RFQ transmission. To benchmark the LEBT simulations we studied the magnetic focusing of different hydrogen species and compared it to measurements in the existing ESS-Bilbao injector. Furthermore, the transmission in the RFQ and output phase space was simulated for different beam currents, and the results were compared against GPT. The lattice of the transfer line was designed and error studies were performed using RF-Track and validated with Tracewin. We demonstrate how RF-Track serves as fast and convenient tool for extensive optimization processes including full particle tracking and calculation of space charge effects.

A deuteron beam of unprecedented intensity will be used at the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility - DEMO Oriented Neutron Source (IFMIF-DONES) to produce a fusion-like neutron flux and characterize the properties of materials in the challenging environment of a fusion reactor. Recently, the possibility of extracting a small fraction of this beam for complementary experiments in a parasitic mode has gained traction within the users community. This paper describes the conceptual design of the extraction system and a proposal for a distribution line capable of serving different experimental stations, without perturbing the main deuteron beam while keeping the same peculiar pulse structure and high peak current.

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) target stations require reliable beam quality to carry out experiments under optimal conditions. Maintaining the bunch structure through the beam transport from the 800-MeV Linac to the target stations is crucial. Currently, beam transport tuning is the primary tool to control the beam, although multiple simulation tools are being developed as ones to model the beamlines. The high-energy beamlines (HEBT) are simulated with accelerator physics codes such as Elegant and MAD-X. These models are continuously improved by incorporating key beam characteristics and lattice elements. They are benchmarked against experimental data where diagnostics are available. We are improving these tools to better understand beam optics and conduct studies aimed at optimizing beam performance. In this report, we present the latest simulation results supporting more predictive beam transport downstream of the 800-MeV Linac.