Strategy for implementing novel societal applications of accelerators

Particle accelerators are already extensively used in health and industry for a wide range of applications, including cancer treatment, polymer modification, sterilisation of medical products, radioisotope production, imaging, phyto-sanitation, food treatment, etc. These exploit the unique features of the accelerated beams and the control the use of accelerators provides. Nevertheless, accelerators have a much greater potential which is currently not being fully exploited. This is due to many reasons, including a lack of knowledge in industry of what benefits they could bring, the perceived and real cost of the technology, the absence of the skills required to assess the potential for a specific industry and to implement the technology and concerns over safety and regulation.