The Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) is a research and development unit of the

Department of Atomic Energy The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''Paramāṇu Ūrjā Vibhāga'') is a department with headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. DAE was established in 1954 by a Presidential Or ...

. The VECC is located in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, India and performs research in basic and applied nuclear sciences and development of the latest nuclear particle accelerators. It has a collaboration with the

European Organization for Nuclear Research The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of G ...

. The Centre houses a 224 cm

cyclotron A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest O. Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. Lawrence, Ernest O. ''Method and apparatus for the acceleration of ions'', filed: J ...

—the first of its kind in India—which has been operational since 16 June 1977. It provides proton,

deuteron Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...

alpha particle Alpha particles, also called alpha rays or alpha radiation, consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium-4 nucleus. They are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be pro ...

and heavy ion beams of various energies to other institutions. The Centre consists of major facilities such as K130 Cyclotron, K500 Superconducting Cyclotron, Cyclone-30 Medical Cyclotron, Radioactive Ion Beam (RIB) Facility, Computing Centre, Regional Radiation Medicine Centre and a new Campus for the proposed ANURIB project at New Town, Rajarhat. The ANURIB (Advanced National facility for Unstable & Rare-Isotope Beams) is a planned facility, to be constructed in collaboration with the Canada-based research institute

TRIUMF TRIUMF is Canada's national particle accelerator centre. It is considered Canada's premier physics laboratory, and consistently regarded as one of the world's leading subatomic physics research centers. Owned and operated by a consortium of un ...

. ANURIB is going to conduct experiments of unstable & rare isotope beams.

References

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* Atomic Energy Commission of India 1977 establishments in West Bengal Nuclear research institutes Atomic and nuclear energy research in India Physics institutes Research institutes in West Bengal Homi Bhabha National Institute Government agencies established in 1977 Government agencies for energy (India) Research institutes in Kolkata Research institutes established in 1977 {{India-gov-stub