A New Probe to the High-Intensity Frontier: Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF)

High-intensity neutron beams and large amounts of radioactive nuclei are powerful tools for exploring uncharted areas of basic and applied science. Neutrons are a unique analysis tool for understanding and improvement of fuels, batteries, computer chips, plastics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, nuclear energy via fission and fusion, and more. Neutrons are used for research of nuclear structure and reactions, material science, molecular structure, biological molecules, and can be “smart bullets” for destroying cancer cells in the body with minimal collateral damage. Rare radioactive nuclei are used to investigate element genesis in the universe, physics beyond the Standard Model, and nuclear structure far from stability. The Soreq Applied Research Accelerator Facility (SARAF) [1], under construction at Soreq Nuclear Research Center (SNRC) in Yavne, Israel, is based on a medium-energy, high-current superconducting linear accelerator of protons and deuterons. Its cuttingedge specifications (Table 1) and unique liquid-metal irradiation targets [2, 3] will make SARAF a world-competitive source of neutrons from thermal to high energy, and radioactive nuclei from various areas of the nuclear chart. Due to the novelty of SARAF’s accelerator and target technology, it was divided into two phases. SARAF-I had low energy and high current to test and characterize the required technologies, and was used from 2010 to 2019 for research that utilized its exceptional beams. The full project (SARAF-II, Table 1) was approved in 2015 and is planned to be operational by the middle of this decade.