On 7 July, scientists and technicians from the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) successfully accelerated a proton beam to 1.6 GeV in the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS), marking a key step in beam commissioning as well as an important milestone for the CSNS project.

The first round of RCS beam commissioning began on 31 May, and ended with a successful beam accumulation and extraction to the R-Dump on 5 June. The second round began on 3 July. On 7 July, the proton beam was accelerated to 1.6 GeV. Two days later, the beam transmission rate became very close to 100%, with barely any beam loss through the whole process.

The RCS at CSNS is the first rapid cycling synchrotron in China. There were many theoretical and technical challenges in the design, construction and beam commissioning, one of which was to complete injection, accumulation, acceleration and extraction of a proton beam within 20 ms. After much sustained effort, the CSNS team has successfully overcome these difficulties.

“We have worked on improving the accelerator technology for CSNS for many years. It is our joint effort that has made it successful,” said Professor Sheng Wang, deputy director of the Accelerator Division of CSNS.