Development of compact accelerator based neutron sources for Canada, the PC-CANS project

Neutron scattering has proven to be one of the most powerful methods for the investigation of structure and dynamics of condensed matter on atomic length and time scales. The neutron science community faces a decline of sources for neutrons with research reactors shutting down and even with new spallation neutron sources coming online. In an effort to address this challenge, the global neutron community is responding by taking advantage of recent advances in accelerator technology to develop compact accelerator-based neutron sources (CANS). The Canadian community embarks on a prototype Canadian CANS (PC-CANS) development to perform the first step towards a national Canadian CANS facility of a next generation CANS. The technical development towards this new concept in context on activities in North America will be presented.