DOE Basic Research Needs Workshop on Energy & Environmental Applications of Accelerators
June 24-26, 2015
The "Workshop on Energy & Environmental Applications of Accelerators" was sponsored by the DOE Office of High Energy Physics to identify the highest impact applications of accelerator technology to address challenges in this area. Building on information from the preceding RFI, the workshop brought together an international group of application and regulatory experts on water, waste water, sewage, flue gas, environmental remediation, medical waste sterilization to discuss with accelerator technology experts the most promising future applications. This report documents the use cases, economic, regulatory, and technical analysis for a wide array of energy & environmental applications of accelerators.
January 23-25, 2013
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of High Energy Physics sponsored the Workshop on Laser Technology for Accelerators to identify R&D that can bridge the gaps between current laser system capabilities and future requirements. This report identifies future laser developments that could be carried out under DOE's accelerator R&D stewardship effort that would contribute to the advancement of accelerator- and laser-enabled science.
A well-targeted stewardship effort in ultrafast laser technology that invests and focuses on the elements discussed in this report would result in a sustained intellectual effort that builds on current state-of-the-art know-how and U.S. competences. It will allow the invention and deployment of technologically critical systems in the U.S. and will reposition the nation for leadership in ultrafast lasers and photonics — leadership that will have substantial industrial and economic benefits.
January 9-10, 2013
More than 60 participants from the U.S., Sweden, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, and Italy were charged with addressing four topics that consecutively built a basis for identifying R&D gaps between current accelerator capabilities and future requirements. A pre-workshop survey of ideas was collated to stimulate the participants to consider the range of required parameters. After three opening lectures on clinical, radiobiological and physics aspects covered the current background of the multidisciplinary fields involved in this science, the participants were parceled into subject panels to debate the issues and priorities over two intense days. The conclusions of each break-out panel, summarized in the report, were presented to all of the participants for further discussion and debate.
Scientists have identified numerous, far-reaching applications of particle accelerators in our lives, laid out in the 2009 report "Accelerators for America's Future" (below). Now they are beginning to help assemble a national plan to fulfill the great potential of accelerators in the US in the areas of energy, the environment, industry, medicine, defense and security and discovery science.
The DOE Office of High Energy Physics established a task force that provided input for a strategic plan for US particle accelerator technology research and development. This input is documented a second report, the "Office of High Energy Physics Accelerator R&D Task Force Report."
The report contains the task force's perspectives on the wide-ranging, useful applications of accelerators, accelerator-related innovations within our reach and the cooperation needed between national laboratories, industry and government agencies to bring it all about.
The Department of Energy's Office of Science has launched an initiative to encourage breakthroughs in accelerator science and their translation into applications for the nation's health, wealth and security.
At an inaugural workshop, sponsored by the Office of High Energy Physics in the Department of Energy's Office of Science, experts from across the spectrum of accelerator applications identified opportunities and challenges for particle beams in:
- Energy and Environment
- Medicine
- Industry
- National Security
- Discovery Science
"Accelerators for America's Future" captures their perspectives, insights and conclusions, informing a national program to put accelerators to work on the challenges of our time.