What is EURISOL?

The EURISOL Design Study is a Project funded by the EUROPEAN COMMUNITY (EC) within the 6th Framework Programme as a Research Infrastructures Action under the  "Structuring the European Research Area Specific Programme". The Contract is for a Design Study, implemented as a “Specific Support Action”. The Project acronym is EURISOL DS. The full title of the Project is: 

“European Isotope Separation On-Line Radioactive Ion Beam Facility”

The project is a follow-up to the EURISOL Feasibility Study, funded by the EC as a Research & Technical Development (RTD) study under the 5th Framework programme (FP5) from 2000 to the end of 2003, resulting in publication of The EURISOL Report.

The study will address the major technological problems which are expected to arise in the creation of a facility able to provide exotic ions in quantities which are orders of magnitude higher than those currently available anywhere else in the world. A feasibility study into the use of the EURISOL facility for the production of pure electron-neutrinos is an integral part of the design study; this is the so-called new “beta-beam” proposal. Synergies which exist between the proposed infrastructure and other European developments will be exploited to mutual advantage.

Twenty institutes and laboratories within Europe have offered to take part in the design study as full Participants, with an additional 20 institutions in Europe, North America and Asia – collaborating as Contributors. The participants are drawn from the major European institutions that lead research in Nuclear Physics and associated fields. In this Design Study they provide specific technological expertise on superconducting linear accelerators, high-power targetry, RIB production, ion sources and beam manipulation, radiation safety and instrumentation.

The Project started officially on the 1st of February 2005

The Project Coordinating Institute is GANIL (Grand Accélérateur National d'Ions Lourds) in Caen, France.

A Management Structure has been set up, with an International Advisory Panel, a Steering Committee (on which all the Participant Institutions are represented), a Coordination Board comprising the leaders of all 12 Tasks of the Project, plus a 4-person Management Board with a small Management Assistance

Team. A schematic diagram of a possible facility layout is available here: (click to enlarge):