Description
The IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility-DEMO Oriented Neutron Source) 40 MeV and 125 mA deuteron accelerator offers unique opportunities not only for material research but also for fundamental and applied nuclear physics. The Spanish nuclear physics community has proposed the construction of a neutron time of flight facility (TOF-DONES) driven by the deuteron accelerator and operated in parasitic mode, without interfering with the irradiation of materials for fusion at IFMIF-DONES. According to the conceptual study carried out, TOF-DONES would be one of the world’s most intense neutron time of flight (TOF) sources used for nuclear physics. Thus, it would complement other existing facilities in Europe, allowing the realization of experiments which require very high neutron beam intensities, contributing to the large demand of neutron beam time and covering the lack of neutron sources in Spain. The Spanish nuclear physics community has the necessary experience, technological skills and scientific collaborations for carrying out a successful experimental program together with its international partners. Indeed, it has a large visibility in neutron physics (CERN n_TOF, GELINA, ILL, nELBE, NFS…) and radioactive ion facilities (CERN Isolde, GANIL SPIRAL2, GSI / FAIR, LNL…), in the design of neutron and nuclear installations (ESS, ITER, nuclear reactors…) and the construction of advanced detection systems (BELEN, DTAS, CALIFA, FATIMA and MONSTER detectors for FAIR).