Underground accelerators in Europe

Nuclear reaction studies have to be carried out directly at or at least near the astrophysically relevant energies, in order to limit theoretical uncertainties. This entails the measurement of very small cross sections at energies far below the Coulomb barrier, leading to countrates that are lower than the laboratory background in a detector.

This problem can be solved by placing an accelerator laboratory deep underground. The world's only underground accelerator, the LUNA 0.4 MV machine, has driven great progress in the understanding of nuclear reactions in our Sun. However, the LUNA energy range is too limited to address more massive stars. For these scenarios, helium and carbon burning reactions and the neutron sources for the astrophysical s-process need to be studied in stable-beam experiments.

Therefore, there is a call in the community for a new European underground accelerator of 2-3 MV accelerating potential to address these science cases. Related projects are under discussion in Italy (Gran Sasso), Spain (Canfranc), the UK (Boulby), and recently also Germany (Felsenkeller). An analogous effort is made in the US (DUSEL).