nuCARIBU will fundamentally change the way neutron-rich, heavy (A>100) radioactive ion beams (RIB) are created at ATLAS. Protons from a 6 MeV, 0.5 mA cyclotron will bombard a 7Li target to generate neutrons via the p-7Li reaction. These neutrons will be thermalized in a moderator and then captured in an actinide foil, e.g. 235U. Heavy fission fragments resulting from the neutron capture reactions will be formed into ion beams in an existing gas catcher and separator system. This new production mechanism will replace the current source of radioactive ions, a thin plating of spontaneously fissioning 252Cf. nuCARIBU is expected to increase the overall intensity of n-rich ions, and improve the consistency and reliability of RIB at ATLAS. The cyclotron has demonstrated full beam production, and the results of initial proton extraction tests agree well with simulations. This paper will present the results of the cyclotron commissioning, neutron production, and initial radioactive beam production.

Platforms are of great importance in the Laboratoire de Physique des 2 infinis Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab) at Orsay, whether they are scientific or technological in nature. A set of platforms is present in IJCLab, offering a large range of techniques with a high level of expertise. They support the scientific axes around the physics of the two infinities and they have a national and international impact in many scientific communities. Radioactive Ion Beams (RIBs) are currently produced in the ALTO (Accélérateur Linéaire et Tandem à Orsay) research platform. Two accelerators are in operation at ALTO (alto.ijclab.in2p3.fr). The first is a 15 MV Tandem accelerator which produces a wide range of heavy ion beams, from proton up to gold. ALTO is able to provide high-flux naturally directional neutron beams with the LICORNE neutron converter in inverse kinematics. The second machine is a linear accelerator (Linac) for electrons up to 50 MeV 10µA that bombard an uranium carbide target as a driver to produce neutron-rich radioactive beams via the photo-fission process [1]. With the delivery of a broad range stable and radioactive beams, its 10 beam lines and experimental halls equipped with diverse instrumentation, spectrometers and detectors, a wide-ranging research is available at ALTO from the study of the fundamental properties of nuclei, key processes for nuclear astrophysics, interaction of ions with matter to the developments in dosimetry and radiobiology. Several projects carried out at ALTO, such as the laser spectroscopy, ion trapping will be pursued at GANIL in the future low energy experimental hall DESIR. An additional RIBs production, based on photo-fission, is under discussion for a potential application of the PERLE (Powerful Energy Recovery Linac for Experiments) [2] project developed at IJCLAB. The goal of this application is to perform electron scattering off beta-unstable nuclei. A general overview of ALTO, a status of the current development on the RIBs production and some of the latest results and on-going research program will be presented. [1] S. Essabaa et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. B 317 (2013) 218 [2] S. A. Bogacz et al., Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 27 (2024) 031603

High-intensity heavy-ion accelerators have unique challenges in their beam intercepting devices that originate from the extremely high energy loss per distance traveled by heavy ions traversing their materials. These challenges often prohibit such accelerators from achieving higher beam power and thus determine the accelerator performance. In this paper, the challenges of operation of FRIB beam intercepting devices, as well as their statuses, and their future enhancements are discussed.