STATUS OF THE SARAF PROJECT

Soreq NRC initiated the establishment of SARAF - Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility. SARAF will be a multi-user facility for basic research (e.g. nuclear astrophysics, radioactive beams), medical and biological research, neutron based non-destructive testing (using a thermal neutron camera and a neutron diffractometer) and radio-pharmaceuticals research, development and production. 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). SARAF is designed to enable hands-on maintenance, which implies beam loss below 10 -5 for the entire accelerator. The commissioning of Phase I of SARAF (full current, energy up to 4-5 MeV) is taking place during 2006 at Soreq. Commissioning of the 40 MeV accelerator is foreseen during 2010.