Phase I of the SARAF superconducting RF linac is under operation at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center. The present status of Phase I main components is reported, as well as, the beam operation experience accumulated in 2013–2014. The latter include acceleration of a 2 mA and 1.6 mA CW proton beams at energies of 2 MeV and 3.9 MeV correspondingly and 1 mA pulsed, duty cycle of few %, deuteron beams up to 5.6 MeV. The recent experiments include operation of intense CW proton beams on the liquid lithium target.
