The basis for a feasibility study for a high-power cyclotron to be used as a multi-purpose irradiation facility

The primary objective of this work is to establish the groundwork for the development of a new experimental facility integrating a particle accelerator to be installed in ENEA Casaccia research centre. More specifically, this study has taken into consideration a high beam repetition frequency and a high beam integrated current accelerator. Preliminary studies have shown that the finest choice for an accelerator with high beam current and simplicity of installation and management is a proton cyclotron capable of reaching, for our research scopes, a final beam energy of at least 70 MeV. To increase the operating flexibility, the accelerator shall supply at least two beamlines and should be capable of accelerating different kinds of ions, in addition to protons. The first beamline to generate neutrons by bombarding a metallic target with protons for neutron applications. The second one directly bombards various kinds of targets with protons or alpha particles, covering a wide range in beam energy and currents. The facility would be of interest to aerospace, nuclear medicine, materials science, radiobiology, medical applications, detector calibration, and fusion physics.