  Canada's access to neutron beams for neutron scattering was significantly
curtailed in 2018 with the closure of the National Research Universal (NRU)
reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. New sources are needed for the
long-term; otherwise, access will only become harder as the global supply
shrinks. Compact Accelerator-based Neutron Sources (CANS) offer the possibility
of an intense source of neutrons with a capital cost significantly lower than
spallation sources. In this paper, we propose a CANS for Canada. The proposal
is staged with the first stage offering a medium neutron-flux, linac-based
approach for neutron scattering that is also coupled with a boron neutron
capture therapy (BNCT) station and a positron emission tomography (PET) isotope
station. The first stage will serve as a prototype for a second stage: a higher
brightness, higher cost facility that could be viewed as a national centre for
neutron applications.
