IPAC'23 - Particle Accelerator Projects and Upgrades

IPAC’23 / PARTICLE ACCELERATOR PROJECTS AND UPGRADES 39 Project Region EMEA Project Location United Kingdom Project Type Project Update Project Description The CLARA is a proposed FEL Test Facility, being built at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory. The project has been broken down into three phases so that progress can be made with beam commissioning of the first sections of CLARA (Phase 1) while the Phase 2 components are procured and assembled offline, Phase 3 is currently on hold as it is tied to UK XFEL project, which is currently in Conceptual Design and Options Analysis phase. The first phase of CLARA is fully installed and has already demonstrated electron beam at ~50 MeV. Beam from Phase 1 is delivered to an ambitious user exploitation programme covering a wide range of experiments following an open call and selection by Beam time Access Panel. The accelerator sections for the second phase have been assembled offline and the major RF systems are being commissioned. The radiation shielding for Phase 2 is complete and the assembled and tested accelerator modules are being installed in the Phase 2 area. A shutdown has started in March 2023 to install modules in Phase 1 area and technical systems commissioning followed by beam commissioning is expected to start in November 2023. Phase 2 will provide 250 MeV beam, 250 pC bunch charge high brightness electron beam at 100 Hz repetition rate. A separate dedicated full energy beam exploitation beam line (FEBE) is part of Phase 2 which will provide access to users in a shielded hutch. The design includes a recently approved high power laser for FEBE, which will open up unique possibilities for novel proof of principle experiments and as a test bench for accelerator instrumentation and technologies. It is expected that 250 MeV CLARA beam will be available for user experiments from early 2025. Requirements List Available No Approval Date Status of Contracting Construction scheduled to start 01/04/2015 Estimated Project Cost 60M £ including resources Estimated Construction Duration 10 years Type of Equipment to be Purchased Vacuum components, beam diagnostics, RF spares, optics for laser transport etc Compact Linear Accelerator for Research and Applications (CLARA)