Administrative authorization for the commissioning of SPIRAL2 facility at GANIL

On 8^th July, the French nuclear safety authority gave the administrative authorization to start up the full SPIRAL2 facility at GANIL. This opens the way for the various steps involved in the commissioning of the accelerator, eventually leading to the first beams for experiments.

Step one is  the qualification of the superconducting cavities with essential help from our partner laboratories. The initial qualification phase is expected to be completed towards the end of 2019.  This will be followed by commissioning with light ion beams and with gradually increasing beam power. The high beam power (up to 200kW) makes it the most powerful accelerator for nuclear physics in this energy domain.

The first beams for commissioning the Neutrons for Science (NFS) facility are envisaged for the autumn of 2020 eventually leading to the first experiments in 2021.