The RAON facility: an overview

The Rare Isotope Science Project (RISP) was launched to construct a new facility called RAON (Rare isotope Accelerator complex for ON-line experiments), dedicated to advancing nuclear physics and rare isotope science. The project is motivated for studying and utilizing rare isotopes for a wide range of applications, including fundamental nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, materials science, and biomedical research. RAON is uniquely designed to incorporate both isotope separation on-line (ISOL) and in-flight fragmentation (IF) methods, and combining the ISOL and IF methods to produce more exotic rare isotopes. With the first phase of the project completed, this paper documents the major milestones of the facility’s construction progress. The key technical achievements, including the commissioning of major components such as the cryogenic system, superconducting linear accelerator, and ISOL system, are highlighted. Recently, a major milestone was achieved with the first acceleration of an ISOL-produced rare isotope beam, successfully delivering a ²⁵Na beam at 16.4 MeV/u. This paper provides an overview of RISP’s technical progress and achievements made to date.