The new AMS Centre for Accelerator Science at ANSTO – a vision to the future

In 2009, the Australian Federal Government approved funding for the construction of a state-of-the-art AMS and IBA centre for applied accelerator science at ANSTO. The final design includes a 1 MV dedicated AMS system (14C, 26Al, 10Be, 129I, Pu, U), a 6MV shared IBA and AMS system (10Be, 26Al, 36Cl, 129I), a gas-filled-magnet beam line, and a dedicated AMS sample preparation building. The NEC accelerators are housed in a new 1500 m2 building interconnected with the existing ANTARES AMS Facility. The 1200 m2 chemistry building was designed as a multipurpose laboratory which provides dedicated and separated lab space for sample preparation for cosmogenic 10Be, 26Al and 36Cl, meteoric 10Be, low-level actinides (Pu,U) and an ice-core freezer storage facility for 14CH4 and 10Be work. An independent Uranium series laboratory (for carbonates, water, quartz) is available with allocated labs for an ICP-MC and IRMS units. The 1MV AMS accelerator was delivered in October 2013. Large beam-optical acceptance and high-mass resolution analysers, coupled to a novel fast coupled HE and LE isotope switching system, enables high quality radiocarbon and actinide analyses. The 6MV AMS System has 3 ion-sources (alphatross, duoplasmatron, MC-SNICS), a high-mass resolution injector, and 3 AMS beam lines. Construction of all facilities has been completed, and delivery of the NEC 6MV accelerator is scheduled for mid-2014. The 1 MV AMS is operational and first results are presented in a companion conference paper. The gas-filled magnet beam line has been assembled and tested with stable beams. The AMS sample chemistry building is operational and commissioned. The cosmogenic lab covers an area of 250 m2, and allows parallel sample processing