Progress report on the small isochronous ring project at NSCL

The small Isochronous Ring (SIR), whose main objectives are experimental studies of space charge effects in the isochronous regime and validation of space charge codes, is under development at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University (MSU). The ring is a small-scale experiment that simulates the dynamics of intense beams in large-scale accelerators. It will store hydrogen and deuterium ions at energies of approximately 20-30 keV for a few tens of turns. The low beam energy and the small scale of the experiment provide a unique opportunity to perform accurate experiments on space charge dominated beams that are difficult to conduct in large-scale accelerators because of power and timing limitations imposed on beam diagnostics. The paper reports the status of the project and describes the progress in the development of ring subsystems.