Today, new heavy ion accelerator facilities are emerging worldwide, including FRIB in the United States, RAON in Korea, HIAF in China, and FAIR in Germany. While each facility features distinct accelerator configurations, they share a common goal: advancing nuclear science through the acceleration of intense heavy ion beams. Among these, the RIKEN RI Beam Factory (RIBF) in Japan has led the way, commencing operations in 2007 as the first of the new-generation facilities. Based on a multi-stage cyclotron system with the superconducting ring cyclotron (SRC) as its final stage, RIBF accelerates heavy ions, including uranium, to 345 MeV/u and produces rare isotope beams using an in-flight scheme. Over 15 years of operation, RIBF has achieved significant advancements in beam intensity and stability, with beam power from the SRC now reaching 10 - 20 kW. These improvements have enabled groundbreaking studies of unstable nuclei. This presentation will discuss the technical challenges overcome at RIBF, and explore the facility’s future directions in heavy ion acceleration.

The South African Isotope Facility (SAIF) is a radioisotope production facility based around a 70 MeV Cyclotron from IBA. SAIF was commissioned at the end of 2023 and commenced commercial isotope production in 2024. The facility is located in three vaults at iThemba LABS in Cape Town. The vault design, radiation modelling, and an overview of construction are presented. The designs and commissioning of the cyclotron, beam lines, wobbler magnet, dedicated target stations and target transport system are described and discussed, along with their current performance.

The Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research continues work on the reconstruction of the U400 cyclotron into a new U400R accelerator complex designed to produce accelerated ion beams with an atomic mass in the range of A = 4 ÷ 209 and an energy of 0.8 ÷ 25 MeV/nucleon. The intensity of accelerated ions will be about 2.5 μA particles for 48Ca ions. The axial injection system of the U400R cyclotron is a modernization of a similar system of the U400 cyclotron. The report presents the results of calculating the axial injection beam line of the cyclotron.

Ionetix Corporation has been conducting research and development on compact superconducting cyclotrons for medical isotope production, with multiple Ion-12SC units installed and operated at customer sites in USA. Since 2021, we have also focused on the production of alpha-emitting medical isotopes for cancer therapy, specifically At-211 and Ac-225. As a first step, Ionetix acquired an existing, partial CS-30 Cyclotron system decommissioned and stored in a warehouse. We refurbished and upgraded the CS-30 cyclotron, replacing components as needed. The installation of the CS-30 was completed in 2022, and it has been operational, accelerating alpha and proton beams since 2023. The refurbished cyclotron features new main and trim coils, a new internal bismuth target and drive, and a new central region to enhance the beam-on-target performance. All power supplies, controls, and instrumentation were replaced with commercially available components. The first production of At-211 at Ionetix was achieved in April 2023, followed by the first production of Ac-225 in June 2024. This paper analyzes and describes the CS-30 cyclotron, and the upgrades and enhancements developed at Ionetix.

The National Atomic Research Institute (NARI) is developing a 70 MeV proton cyclotron, with construction set from 2023 to 2027. The cyclotron is designed to operate at proton energies from 28 to 70 MeV and a maximum current of 1000 micro-amperes. It will serve three main purposes: (1) medical isotope production, (2) proton irradiation testing, and (3) cyclotron-based neutron source development. NARI aims to ensure a stable supply of radioisotopes for nuclear medicine, such as Tl-201, I-123, and Ga-67, while advancing the development of isotopes like Cu-67 and Mo-99. In addition to medical uses, the cyclotron will simulate space radiation environments for aerospace materials testing and radiation measurement standards. The cyclotron will also support neutron-based technologies, benefiting nuclear physics, new materials, and industrial applications. Neutron research will occur in two phases: Phase I (2023–2026) will establish a thermal neutron target station for neutron diffraction studies, and Phase II (2027–2030) will develop a quasi-monoenergetic neutron (QMN) source for soft error rate testing in electronics and a high-resolution neutron imaging station. Expected to be fully operational by 2028, the facility will include seven beamlines, two solid target stations, one gas target station, and specialized laboratories for proton, fast neutron, and thermal neutron research. The NARI 70 MeV cyclotron will support both routine isotope production and advanced scientific research.

The high current density of HTS material allows electromagnet to induce sufficiently strong magnetic field without relying on any iron core. This permits the design of air-cored cyclotron, where the absence of iron core brings the properties of light-weight and high field reproducibility, making it an ideal medical cyclotron to be installed inside hospitals. However, the cyclotron coil system need to induce highly accurate field while satisfying the engineering restriction from the HTS coil. Compact size, small fringe field and minimum fabrication cost are also desirable at the same time. A HTS coil system of air-cored cyclotron is designed with the above restrictions taken into consideration. Multiple beam type accelerations that are required for medical RI production are simulated, in order to verify the usefulness of this design. In this work, the coil system design, the magnetic field and the HTS coil properties are presented. The feasibility of actual fabrication and in-hospital installation is discussed.

Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reaction of Joint Institute for Nuclear Research carries out the works under creating of FLNR JINR Irradiation Facility based on the cyclotron U400R. The main systems of U400R are based on the U400 cyclotron. The objectives of this project are: - to increase the intensity of accelerated 48Ca ion beams from 1.2 puA to 2 puA; - to expand the energy range of accelerated ions from 2–20 MeV per unit mass to 0.8–25 MeV per unit mass; - to extract ion using stripping foil and deflector; - to reduce the energy spread in the beam to 3×10⁻³. The results of calculating the parameters of the new RF-system are given in this work.

Further development of a cyclotron design concept with advantages, such as energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness, is presented. The concept is optimized for non-superconducting cyclotrons. The main feature of the concept is the operation at high frequency (145 MHz) of the accelerating system.

At iThemba LABS proton beams, extracted from an ion source, are pre-accelerated in an injector cyclotron and further accelerated in a K200 cyclotron and transported to various target stations used for radionuclide production. To gain a deeper understanding of the various processes occurring inside the plasma reservoir of the ion source and to support operational adjustments of the ion source, a novel optical emission diagnostics system is being developed in collaboration with the ISIS Facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The proposed work builds on pioneering development of optical diagnostics of ion source plasmas and high-current beam-induced light emission at ISIS. The optical signals generated in the plasma and extraction region are collected and transported via an optical fibre to a diagnostics unit with multiple detectors suited for varying intensities and required temporal resolutions. Wavelengths of various emission lines are selected using bandpass filters. From this unit the signals are sent to a data acquisition system for processing. This contribution will present a preliminary design of the optical diagnostics system and the status of prototyping activities.

This study presents a multi-objective optimization scheme for ring cyclotron RF cavities, leveraging a neural network ensemble surrogate model. The cavity geometry is parameterized using Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS), with control points and weights as design parameters. To reduce the computational cost of direct eigenmode simulations, an ensemble of neural networks trained using Ansys HFSS results is used to approximate performance metrics efficiently. The surrogate model also quantifies uncertainty, enabling Monte Carlo error propagation to account for potential manufacturing deviations. A multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) explores the design space, using the surrogate model for efficient evaluations. The neural network ensemble are periodically retrained through HFSS simulations, iteratively improving the accuracy of surrogate model. This approach gives a robust and reliable RF cavity design optimization scheme.

The UC Davis Crocker Nuclear Laboratory houses a 72-inch multi-species Isochronous Cyclotron built in the 1960’s. For many years, previously unexplained beam dynamics have been indirectly observed at the cyclotron by both internal and external experimenters. Investigating these effects within the cyclotron, at the bunch level, has proven particularly challenging due to the cyclotron's harsh environment of strong magnetic fields, high radiation levels, intense RF interference, and limited space. To address these challenges, a compact segmented beam probe was developed, utilizing a scintillator array target coupled to a SiPM array positioned outside the cyclotron via fiber optic cables. This novel beam probe has enabled precise, high-speed measurements of individual beam bunches, providing data to theoretical models and deepening the understanding of beam dynamics allowing for more precise operation of the cyclotron. These advancements are driving efforts to optimize cyclotron performance for diverse applications, including isotope production, ocular melanoma therapy, and a variety of experimental research.

The emission of electrons induced by beam interaction with thin targets is a phenomenon used to measure various properties of particle beams. The main processes of electron emission are: secondary emission, delta electron production and thermionic emission. The last one is not desired, because the intensity of thermionic electrons is not directly related to beam density profile. A common technique to suppress thermionic emission employs bias potential on the wire, which allows for recapturing of low energy electrons. This study investigates the effectiveness of the bias voltage method for high-brightness proton beams of the HIPA accelerator. Through experiments and simulations, the study aims to better understand the emission spectra, the suppression of thermionic emission, and the effects of beam fields on electron dynamics.

Diagnostics of charged particle beams is an important area in the field of accelerator technology. Non-destructive methods of beam diagnostics are becoming increasingly popular, as they allow measurements to be taken without changing the beam parameters. This is particularly valuable when studying continuous processes, the results of which can be distorted when using traditional diagnostic methods. Pickup electrodes are devices used for non-destructive diagnostics of charged particle beams. They are thin metal plates located along the axis of the beam motion. When a particle beam passes near a pickup electrode, it creates an electrical signal that is proportional to the beam current. This signal can be processed and analyzed using special equipment and software. A multichannel modular system with expandability has been developed to measure particle acceleration parameters, specifically the phase distribution during movement in the accelerator chamber, coordinates relative to the median plane and other parameters. The paper presents the results of testing the system at the DC-280 cyclotron at FLNR JINR and SSC at IThemba LABS.

The Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at UC Davis operates a 72-inch isochronous cyclotron capable of accelerating protons, deuterons, and alpha particles to variable energies up to a maximum of 67.5 MeV for protons. The cyclotron is primarily used for proton therapy, conducting radiation effects testing, and supporting academic research. We describe the upgrade of its original analog control system to a modern digital system capable of integrating AI-based control. This upgrade involves new hardware and software infrastructure to manage subsystems such as the ion beam source, isochronous magnetic field, beam extraction, and beam transport lines. The integrated monitoring and actuator systems are currently being implemented and validated, featuring real-time visualization, a database, and a web application. The new system aims to enhance operations through improved data visualization, database accessibility, and the implementation of autonomous AI-based control, incorporating techniques like artificial neural networks for anomaly detection and automated tuning for efficiency. This document details the hardware and software architecture of the PLC-LabVIEW-Python AI-based control system.