India’s Potential to Develop Particle Accelerators for Societal, Industrial and Environmental Applications

During the past over 50 years, India has been constructing and setting up several particle accelerator facilities for scientiststo carry out frontline basic and applied research. Significant amount of investment has been made and the trend, fortunately, continues. Our scientists and technologists have acquired excellent expertise todesign and build challenging accelerators and related systems. The expertise is now being utilized to carry out R&D on particle accelerators for accelerator-driven systems for nuclear power-related applications. In this article, a strong case has been made to intensify as well as diversify our efforts to develop small accelerators and systems for societal, industrial and environmental applications. Justifications for the availability of expertise and the strong need for the proposed developments in the country have also been provided.