PIP: A Low Energy Recycling Non-scaling FFAG for Security and Medicine

PIP, the Proton Isotope Production accelerator, is a low energy (6-10 MeV) proton nsFFAG design that uses a simple 4-cell lattice. Low energy reactions involving the creation of specific nuclear states can be used for neutron production and for the manufacture of various medical isotopes. Unfortunately a beam rapidly loses energy in a target and falls below the resonant energy. A recycling ring with a thin internal target enables the particles that did not interact to be re-accelerated and used for subsequent cycles. The increase in emittance due to scattering in the target is partially countered by the re-acceleration, and accommodated by the large acceptance of the nsFFAG. The ring is essentially isochronous, the fields provide strong focussing so that losses are small, the components are simple, and it could be built at low cost with existing technology.