U.S. Particle Accelerator School
U.S. Particle Accelerator School
Education in Beam Physics and Accelerator Technology

Accelerator Production of Tritium course

Sponsoring University:

MIT

Course:

Accelerator Production of Tritium

Instructors:

Thomas Wangler, James Billen, George Lawrence and Paul Lisowski, Los Alamos National Laboratory

This course presents the basic principles for the design of a new, large-scale, proton linear accelerator project, the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT), which is being carried out as a joint effort by the national Laboratories and US industry. The 1.7-GeV linac will be the worlds highest average-power accelerator, delivering a 170-MW proton beam to a target/blanket system in which tritium will be produced by spallation neutrons. The major part of the course is a study of the accelerator design, including the principles of operation of the linac accelerating structures, high-current-linac beam dynamics, including beam-halo effects produced by space-charge forces, and other technology issues. The principles of the basic computer codes used for the accelerator design will be presented. Two accelerator design approaches have been developed, one for a normal-conducting linac that uses conventional copper structures, and one which uses superconducting cavities. Both will be addressed, and in particular the design approach for the proton superconducting-linac sections. The course will also cover a project overview and the basic target physics. Prerequisites: electromagnetism and classical mechanics.