Towards 10 MeV/u with the HIE-ISOLDE project

The HIE-ISOLDE project has been approved recently by the CERN Research Board and its implementation will start in January 2010 under the guidance of project leader Yacine Kadi. It aims at several important upgrades of the present ISOLDE facility. The main focus lies in the energy upgrade of the postaccelerated radionuclide beams from 3 MeV/u up to 10 MeV/u through the addition of superconducting cavities. This will open the possibility of many new types of experiments including transfer reactions throughout the nuclear chart. The prototype of the Nb-sputtered cavities will soon be tested following the construction of the first cryogenic module of the new superconducting linear accelerator. The project also includes a design study of improved production targets to accomodate to the future increase of proton intensity delivered by the new LINAC4 proton driver. This improvement combined with the recently installed solid state lasers of the RILIS laser ion source and the radiofrequency quadrupole cooler and buncher ISCOOL will lead to an increase of the radioactive beam intensities of up to an order of magnitude. An overview of the project and the timeline including first ideas for the layout of the new HIE-ISOLDE experimental hall are presented.