A heavy ion injector at CERN

The request of the nuclear and high energy physics community for high energy heavy ions at CERN has lead to a proposal to upgrade the present facilities for this purpose. This scheme uses the (improved) existing accelerators: the Proton Synchrotron Booster (PSB), the Proton Synchrotron (PS) and the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The Linac, however needs a complete rebuild. This paper reviews the early 'ion history' at CERN, where Linac 1 was used to accelerate deuterons and alpha particles. The experience gained during these exercises resulted in the more spectacular production of oxygen and sulphur ions over recent years. This work is to be continued up till 1992. The future goal of heavy ion acceleration requires a new linac and substantial improvements to the ion source and also to the down-stream accelerators. Details of the procedure for arriving at the linac specifications and special features, particular to the CERN accelerator complex, are described