Present status of and recent developments at RIKEN RI beam factory

The Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) is a cyclotron-based accelerator facility that is used for nuclear science studies and was completed at the end of 2006. RIBF can produce the most intense RI beams using fragmentation or fission of high speed heavy ion beams. Ever since the first beam was produced, effort has focused on increasing the intensity of uranium beams. Ions beams with high intensity and high availability have been used to produce many important scientific achievements. Upgrade programs have been proposed to further expand scientific opportunities. These programs have two goals. The first goal is to find heavier elements than element 118, which is already named. The upgrade program for the heavy ion linac (RILAC), including installation of a superconducting linac, has been funded and is under construction. The second goals is to increase the intensity of uranium ion beams up to 1 pµA, thus facilitating further investigations into the physics of unstable nuclei. This program for uranium beams is still been unfunded. We are pursuing a budget-friendly version without changing the project goals.