IFMIF accelerators design

The IFMIF requirement for 250 mA current of deuteron beams at a nominal energy of 40 MeV is met by means of two identical continuous wave (CW) 175 MHz linear accelerators running in parallel, each delivering a 125 mA, 40 MeV deuteron beam to the common target. This approach allows to stay within the current capability of present RF linac technology while providing operational redundancy in case of failure of one of the linacs. Each linac comprises a sequence of acceleration and beam transport/matching stages. The ion source generates a 140 mA deuteron beam at 100 keV. A low energy beam transport (LEBT) transfers the deuteron beam from the source to a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) cavity. The RFQ bunches and accelerates the 125 mA beam to 5 MeV. The RFQ output beam is injected through a matching section into a drift-tube-linac (DTL) where it is accelerated to the final energy of 40 MeV. In the reference design, the final acceleration stage is a conventional Alvarez-type DTL with post-couplers operating at room temperature. Operation of both the RFQ and the DTL at the same relatively low frequency is essential for accelerating the high current deuteron beam with low beam loss. The primary concern of the IFMIF linacs is the minimization of beam losses, which could limit their availability and maintainability due to excessive activation of the linac and irradiation of the environment. A careful beam dynamics design is therefore needed from the source to the target to avoid the formation of particle halo that could finally be lost in the linac or transfer lines. A superconducting solution for the high energy portion of the linac using, for example, CH-structure or coaxial-type resonators, could offer some advantages, in particular the reduction of operational costs. Careful beam dynamics simulations and comparison tests with beam during the EVEDA phase are however necessary in order to fully assess the technical feasibility of such alternative solutions.