MedAustron: First Years of Operation

MedAustron is a synchrotron-based facility for ion-beam therapy and research located in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The planning of a European spallation source, the so-called AUSTRON project in the late eighties of the last century, marked the origin of the more medical oriented MedAustron facility. However, it took some years until a dedicated feasibility study for the medical project was finalized in 1998 and six years later, in 2004, the MedAustron design study was published. This was also the basis for the political decision to provide financial support for the realization of an accelerator facility for mainly medical applications. This contribution, funded by Austrian public authorities, implied also the possibility to use the generated particle beams for nonclinical and non-medical research projects.