Lowry Conradie (South Africa): New Developments and Upgrades of the Accelerators at iThemba LABS to better serve the user community

iThemba LABS hosts 4 cyclotrons and two electrostatic accelerators dedicated to research and isotope production, which are 2 injector cyclotrons with K-values of 8, a separated sector cyclotron (SSC) with a K-value of 200, an 11 MeV cyclotron, a 6 MV tandem accelerator and a 3 MV tandetron. During the past number of years iThemba LABS has embarked on an upgrade and replacement program of the accelerators to better serve the user community. The 50-year-old 6 MV Van de Graaff accelerator has been replaced by a 3 MV tandetron accelerator for research in new fields of material research with light and heavy ions. The 6 MV EN tandem accelerator was refurbished to be mainly used for accelerator mass spectrometry. With the abolishment of the therapy program at iThemba LABS a new research program for the SSC has been proposed with the main focus on research with stable beams and the production of radioactive beams. A new cyclotron will be acquired and dedicated for the production of isotopes, thereby releasing the SSC for dedicated use with the new research programme. The upgrades and developments on the different accelerators and the new applications will be discussed.