© Philippe Stroppa/CEA/CNRS Reference N°. 20160093_0020 View of SPIRAL2’s LINAC (LINear ACcelerator), with its superconducting cryomodules containing acceleration cavities.
The new SPIRAL2 particle accelerator at the French large heavy-ion accelerator GANIL (CNRS/CEA), inaugurated on November 3 in the presence of the French President François Hollande, will be able to produce immensely powerful particle beams, enabling scientists to push back the frontiers of knowledge. This will double France's experimental capability in nuclear physics, especially with regard to research into atomic nuclei and the mechanisms of nuclear reactions, such as those that take place within stars. Initial experiments are expected to get underway in mid 2017. Studying atomic nuclei is of fundamental importance since they contain nearly the entire mass of the atoms of which all matter is made. The SPIRAL2 facility will be used to probe the very heart of matter. It is designed to produce huge quantities of 'exotic' particles (so called because they do not exist in the natural state on Earth), making it possible to carry out novel experiments in nuclear physics and astrophysics. Multidisciplinary applied research will also be carried out at SPIRAL2 in the fields of health care (radiotherapy, diagnosis and biomedical research), materials for microfiltration (membranes for the agri-food and health sectors), electronics, the aerospace industry, and nuclear fission and fusion.
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