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The Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) is a high intensity D+ linear accelerator; demonstrator of the International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). In summer 2019 the IFMIF/EVEDA Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerated its nominal 125 mA deuteron (D+) beam current up to 5 MeV, with 90% transmission for pulses of 1 ms at 1 Hz. This success was possible thanks to an intense previous campaign of modelization and measurements in order to characterize the RFQ input beam, which is affected by the ECR ion source extraction and the low energy beam transport. The simulation models used with the measurement benchmarks are here presented.

The ADIGE (Acceleratore Di Ioni a Grande carica Esotici) injector consists of an electrostatic 1+ beam line, equipped with ion sources able to produce a wide variety of beams, coupled to a magnetic beam line, where charge multiplication is accomplished by implementing an Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) based charge breeder. The injector is totally integrated in the SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) beam line, to allow the post-acceleration of radioactive ions and is now in an advanced phase of installation. The electrostatic 1+beam line has been put into operation and is now producing beams from alkali metals. This contribution concerns the first results of the beam commissioning of this part of the injector, with the description of the initial debug phase and the solutions adopted to ensure a reliable and continuous operation. Preliminary results of the 1+ beam line characterization will be shown, with a comparison between simulated and measured emittances.

During 2018, the PIAVE superconducting linac injector at INFN-LNL, based on superconducting RFQs and two cryomodules with quarter wave resonators, underwent a renovation plan. This operation was strictly related to the one carried out on ALPI [1], which will become a post-accelerator for both stable and exotic beams in a near future. PIAVE Quarter Wave Resonator (QWR) cryomod-ules, in operation since 2006, were moved to ALPI to be used for the acceleration of both stable beams and future exotic beams delivered from the cyclotron target-ion-source station, after appropriate purification, charge breeding and pre-acceleration stages. In order to cope with the removal of the two QWR cryomodules in PIAVE, a newly designed 80 MHz room temperature buncher was designed, built and tested: the buncher is required so as to match the longitudinal phase space between PIAVE su-perconducting RFQs (SRFQ1 and SRFQ2) and ALPI. In the same period, substantial refurbishments on the ECR ion source platform were carried out, in particular on its infrastructure and safety equipment. A problem on an electronic component on SRFQ2, though quickly fixed, delayed beam commissioning of the PIAVE injector, which will start at the end of May 2019., Proceedings of the 10th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2019, Melbourne, Australia

Superconducting RFQs (SRFQs), the first SC RFQs ever made operational for users, have been operated on the PIAVE SC heavy ion linac injector at INFN-Legnaro since 2006. The structure is split into two resonators and is limited to the accelerating RFQ sections. The resonators had never exceeded 80% of the design accelerating fields. In 2015, an upgrade plan started, aimed at increasing the accelerating fields, while improving their slow and fast tuning systems, repairing degraded components, imple-menting a LASER alignment method. The upgrade plan was successfully concluded in summer 2017. The resona-tors were kept stably locked for days at a field larger than the nominal one. Eventually, a test beam was accelerated successfully for 72 hours, with negligible locking issues. SRFQs entered once again routine operation in December 2017. The new features will allow to accelerate heavy ions with an A/q value as high as 8.5 (versus a former maximum A/q=7.5), allowing operation of the very first accelerated uranium beams at INFN-LNL, after the relat-ed authorizations shall have been issued., Proceedings of the 9th Int. Particle Accelerator Conf., IPAC2018, Vancouver, BC, Canada

SPES (Selective Production of Exotic Species) is an INFN project to develop a Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) facility as an intermediate step toward EURISOL. The SPES project is part of the INFN Road Map for the Nuclear Physics development in Italy and is supported by the whole Italian Nuclear Physics community and mainly by LNL and LNS the INFN National Laboratories of Nuclear Physics in Legnaro and Catania. The Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro (LNL) was chosen as the site for the facility construction due to the presence of the PIAVE-ALPI accelerator complex, which will be used as re-accelerator for the RIBs. The SPES project is based on the ISOL method with an UCx Direct Target and makes use of a proton driver of at least 40 MeV energy and 200 microA current. Neutron-rich radioactive beams will be produced by Uranium fission at an expected fission rate in the target in the order of 1013 fissions per second. The key feature of SPES is to provide high intensity and high-quality beams of neutron rich nuclei to perform forefront research in nuclear structure, reaction dynamics and interdisciplinary fields like medical, biological and material sciences. The exotic isotopes will be re-accelerated by the ALPI superconducting linac at energies up to 10AMeV for masses in the region of A=130 amu with an expected rate on target of 109 pps.