THE MOST SIGNIFICANT
OPERATIONAL EXPANSION
IN THE 
LAB’S 50-YEAR HISTORY

ARIEL

The Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory (ARIEL) is the most significant expansion project in the lab’s 50-year history, and will be among the few purpose-built multi-user rare isotope facilities in the world.

For unique insights into ARIEL’s construction explore Featured Media for time lapse segments and the debut commercial showcasing its concept to commissioning.

Some ARIEL quick facts include:

  • Once completed, ARIEL will be the world’s most powerful Isotope Separation Online (ISOL) complex, supported within the CANREB facility (the Canadian Rare isotope facility with Electron Beam ion source)
    • It uses a built-in-Canada linear electron accelerator to enable world-class research on the nature of atomic nuclei and the origin of heavy elements
    • ARIEL will be instrumental in future development and production of quantum materials and medical isotopes

Nuclei

The dense cores of atoms, which are made of protons and neutrons (with the exception of hydrogen)

Linear Accelerator

A linear particle accelerator known as a linac increases the velocity of charged subatomic particles or ions by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline

Heavy Elements

The informal name for all elements with 93 or more protons in their nucleus, some of which can be produced artificially as part of accelerator-based experiments

Isotope

While each element has an atomic nucleus with a unique proton number, the neutron number can vary. These different ‘flavours’ of the element are called ‘isotopes.’

Quantum Materials

Quantum materials are solids with unique physical properties that stem from unexpected interactions of their electrons

Funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), six provinces, and with the backing from 21 universities, the ARIEL facility will massively expand the rare isotope program by providing more exotic isotope species with very high intensities, allowing TRUIMF’s global community of researchers and students to more fully exploit the existing experimental facilities onsite.

 

It will be commissioned and operational in several phases between 2020-2026.

 

View the growing list of all the ARIEL Contributors who have made this project possible through the years.   

 

Watch our 15-minute Town Hall talks to learn more about how TRIUMF’s Life Sciences research is enabled by ARIEL’s significant capabilities. 

FEATURED MEDIA