By Swann Collins, investor, writer and consultant in international affairs – Eurasia Business News. August 8, 2026. Article no 3062
China has completed and begun trial operations at the High-Intensity Heavy-Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF), a major research complex designed to produce some of the world’s most intense heavy-ion beams. Located in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, HIAF will support research into nuclear physics, stellar explosions, space technology, cancer treatment and rare isotopes.
A new frontier in nuclear science
The facility passed its technological acceptance review on July 21, marking the completion of construction and the beginning of trial operations. Developed by the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the HIAF project was proposed in 2009. Construction began in December 2018 and took seven years to complete. The total investment reached approximately 2.6 billion yuan, or about $385 million.
HIAF occupies around 32 hectares and contains six experimental stations. Its accelerator system includes a two-kilometre beamline installed 13 metres underground. The complex is designed to accelerate a broad range of ions, from hydrogen to uranium, to energies ranging from millions to billions of electron volts per nucleon.
The facility combines a superconducting linear accelerator with a fast-cycling synchrotron and storage-ring systems. This configuration enables HIAF to generate both continuous and pulsed beams with exceptionally high intensity. During testing, the complex reportedly achieved record beam intensities for oxygen and bismuth ions, strengthening China’s position in advanced accelerator technology.
Recreating extreme cosmic conditions
Heavy-ion collisions allow scientists to compress matter into microscopic regions of extremely high temperature and pressure. These short-lived conditions can help researchers investigate the structure of atomic nuclei and explore forms of matter that rarely, if ever, exist naturally on Earth.
HIAF will be used to study nuclear reactions linked to the creation of heavy elements, including those formed in stars and supernova explosions. The accelerator could also offer insights into the early universe, when matter existed under extraordinarily dense and energetic conditions after the Big Bang.
One of the facility’s central objectives is to expand the known limits of the nuclear landscape. By producing unstable and exotic isotopes, scientists can test existing nuclear models and better understand why some atomic nuclei are stable while others decay almost immediately. During its commissioning phase, HIAF researchers reported the observation of the rare hafnium-153 isotope, an early demonstration of the facility’s scientific potential.
Applications beyond basic physics
Although HIAF is primarily a nuclear research facility, its applications extend into medicine, aerospace and materials science. Scientists plan to use its beams to test the radiation resistance of spacecraft electronics, components and advanced materials. Such experiments could help improve the reliability of satellites and crewed missions operating beyond Earth’s protective atmosphere.
The accelerator may also contribute to the development of heavy-ion cancer therapy, a treatment method that uses precisely controlled ion beams to target tumours. Researchers are expected to investigate new treatment technologies, biological effects and medical isotope production. HIAF could therefore become an important platform for producing rare radioisotopes used in diagnosis and therapy.
HIAF and Russia’s NICA collider
China’s HIAF is emerging alongside Russia’s Nuclotron-based Ion Collider fAcility, or NICA, in Dubna. The two projects have different experimental priorities. HIAF focuses heavily on directing intense ion beams at fixed targets, while NICA is designed to circulate and collide counter-propagating ion beams.
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NICA entered an advanced commissioning phase after its first run in March 2025, with further preparations for physics experiments continuing in 2026. Together, the facilities reflect a renewed international effort to explore the behaviour of nuclear matter under extreme conditions.
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© Copyright 2026 – Eurasia Business News. Article no. 3062
Eurasia Business News 