Low-energy nuclear physics program with the Tandem Van De Graaff Accelerator at Western Michigan University

Through a collaboration between the Physicists Inspiring the Next Generation: Exploring the Nuclear Matter (PING) program at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) of Michigan State University (MSU) and Western Michigan University (WMU), the construction of a dedicated PING beamline at the WMU Van de Graaff accelerator is under development. This beamline will utilize low energy stable isotopes to perform Rutherford scattering experiments on various target in addition to opening the capability to perform low energy nuclear astrophysics experiments. The beamline design is based on the Rutherford scattering kit used by the PING students at FRIB and the MoNA Collaboration beamline in the S2 vault. It includes two parallel plate avalanche chambers (PPACS) to monitor the incident beam tracking as well as a 2 m diameter scattering chamber that houses the target and a rotating detector suite composed of a stack of PPACs with backed by a calorimeter. The entire beamline is surrounded by a set of radiation detectors to monitor the radiation budget around the setup. The beamline design also involves some of the PING students for some of its components. A review of this PING beamline design will be presented.