[en] Rising interest in the nuclear physics community in a GeV C.W. electron accelerator reflects the growing importance of high-resolution short-range nuclear physics to future advances in the field. In this report major current problems are reviewed and the details of prospective measurements which could be made with a GeV C.W. electron facility are discussed, together with their impact on an understanding of nuclear forces and the structure of nuclear matter. The microtron accelerator has been chosen as the technology to generate the electron beams required for the research discussed because of the advantages of superior beam quality, low capital and operating cost and capability of furnishing beams of several energies and intensities simultaneously. A complete technical description of the conceptual design for a 2 GeV double-sided C.W. electron microtron is presented. The accelerator can furnish three beams with independently controlled energy and intensity. The maximum current per beam is 100 μamps. Although the precise objective for maximum beam energy is still a subject of debate, the design developed in this study provides the base technology for microtron accelerators at higher energies (2 to 6 GeV) using multi-sided geometries