The European Spallation Source (ESS) linear accelerator, one the largest scientific equipment under realisation in Europe, is now in the beam commissioning stage. The project is implemented thanks to the collaboration of several European countries, mostly following the scheme of the in-kind contribution, with the involvement of scientists from many European laboratories and Universities in all phases, from design to beam commissioning. The most recent achievements are described in detail. The in-kind contributions are vast and differentiated, including delivery of normal conductive and superconducting accelerating structures, ion sources, magnets, power converters, RF systems, controls, diagnostics as well as the participation to design, installation, and commissioning of the linac. Results of this collaborative effort will be shown in details.

One of the greatest challenges for nuclear energy is how to properly manage the highly radioactive waste generated during irradiation in nuclear reactors. Accelerator Driven Systems (ADSs) is one methods of addressing the transmutation of such high level nuclear waste. ADS or accelerator driven transmutation of waste (ATW) consists of a high power proton accelerator, a heavy metal spallation target that produces neutrons when bombarded by the high power beam, and a sub-critical core that is neutronically coupled to the spallation target. This talk presents the world overview of nuclear energy that has proven to assist in dee-carbonization of energy sectors since the mid-1970s as well as the approaches to ADS being explored around the globe

Particle physics has been a major innovation driver and user of accelerators over the last century. Some past highlights are quickly presented and the future directions in particle physics are discussed. Future options for accelerators are reviewed, also discussing major constraints in beam energy, luminosity and practical details, like power consumption.