Technological Facilities at STFC, UK
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in the UK is a centre of excellence for all aspects of charged particle accelerators, ranging from large scale international and national research facilities through to specialised industrial and medical applications. STFC plays a central role in the UK's accelerator-based national scientific facilities which include the Diamond synchrotron light source and the ISIS neutron source. STFC is also a critical partner in international projects such as the Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility under construction in Romania and the European Spallation source (ESS) in Sweden.
STFC’s unique test environment supports research and development in key sub-component technologies including vacuum, magnets and RF, as well as enabling complete accelerator system validation. STFC delivers technological advancements for particle accelerators and beyond through extensive collaborations with international laboratories, academia and industry. STFC also prides itself on the outreach and training work it undertakes to inspire and nurture the next generation of particle accelerator designers and scientists.
The goal of the AMICI H2020 project is to foster innovation in the field of particle accelerators and superconducting magnets and to facilitate industrialisation by creating an open and globally available technology infrastructure for European industry to use. STFC is supporting this goal with its broad range of facilities and associated expertise:
- VELA (Versatile Electron Linear Accelerator) is a high performance, modular linear accelerator designed to support the development and qualification of advanced accelerator systems and sub-component technology development from prototypes to market ready products.
- Compact Linac is an innovative and highly compact electron beam and X-ray source developed to investigate the potential for small, low-energy linear accelerators to be utilised in application areas such as security, non-destructive testing and wastewater treatment.
- Front End Test Stand (FETS) is a multi-purpose test stand for high power proton accelerator front end technologies. Its applications are many, ranging from future upgrades of the UK neutron source, ISIS, through to nuclear waste transmutation.
- Vacuum and surface science laboratory offering state-of-the-art facilities for the development and testing of UHV and XHV components. An extensive array of thin film processing and material analysis systems is available for the development of innovative coating solutions for vacuum components.
- RF testing and qualification infrastructure for the design, construction and verification of both normal-conducting and superconducting RF accelerating structures. Comprising high precision bead-pull system for EM characterisation, SRF vertical test facility and associated BCP, HPR and ISO4 cleanroom facilities.
- Magnet test laboratory offering a full suite of magnet measurement and validation facilities including a series of high precision magnet qualification test benches for the characterisation and calibration of magnets.
- Advanced instrumentation, laser and cryogenic laboratories for the development of innovative sub-system designs which can be qualified for high performance prior to integration into an operating accelerator environment.
RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURES WHOSE CONSTRUCTION HAS INVOLVED THE CERN TECHNICAL PLATFORMS
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CONTACT
Further details can be found at https://www.astec.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/AMICI.aspx.