William Herb Strong

Status and performance of the spallation neutron source superconducting linac

The Superconducting Linac at SNS has been operating with beam for almost two years. As the first operational pulsed superconducting linac, many of the aspects of its performance were unknown and unpredictable. A lot of experience has been gathered during the commissioning of its components, during the beam turn on and during operation at increasingly higher beam power. Some cryomodules have been cold for well over two years and have been extensively tested. The operation has been consistently conducted at 4.4 K and 10 and 15 pulses per second, with some cryomodules tested at 30 and 60 Hz and some tests performed at 2 K. Careful balance between safe operational limits and the study of conditions, parameters and components that create physical limits has been achieved.

4.2 K Operation of the SNS Cryomodules

The Spallation Neutron Source being built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory employs eighty one 805 MHz superconducting cavities operated at 2.1 K to accelerate the H-beam from 187 MeV to about 1 GeV. The superconducting cavities and cryomodules with two different values of beta (. 61 and .81) have been designed and constructed at Jefferson Lab for operation at 2.1 K with unloaded Q’s in excess of 5×109. To gain experience in testing cryomodules in the SNS tunnel before the final commissioning of the 2.1 K Central Helium Liquefier, integration tests are being conducted on the cryomodules at 4.2 K. This is the first time that a superconducting cavity system specifically designed for 2.1 K operation has been extensively tested at 4.2 K without superfluid helium.

Status of the spallation neutron source superconducting RF facilities

The spallation neutron source (SNS) project was completed with only limited superconducting RF (SRF) facilities installed as part of the project. A concerted effort has been initiated to install the infrastructure and equipment necessary to maintain and repair the superconducting Linac, and to support power upgrade research and development (R&D). Installation of a Class 10/100/10,000 cleanroom and outfitting of the test cave with RF, vacuum, controls, personnel protection and cryogenics systems is underway. A horizontal cryostat, which can house a helium vessel/cavity and fundamental power coupler for full power, pulsed testing, is being procured. Equipment for cryomodule assembly and disassembly is being procured. This effort, while derived from the experience of the SRF community, will provide a unique high power test capability as well as long term maintenance capabilities. This paper presents the current status and the future plans for the SNS SRF facilities.

OPERATION OF THE SUPERCONDUCTING LINAC AT THE SPALLATION NEUTRON SOURCE

At the Spallation Neutron Source, the first fully operational pulsed superconducting linac has been active for about two years. During this period, stable beam operation at 4.4 K has been achieved with beam for repetition rates up to 15 Hz and 30 Hz at 2.1 K. At the lower temperature 60 Hz RF pulses have been also used. Full beam energy has been achieved at 15 Hz and short beam pulses. Most of the time the superconducting cavities are operated at somewhat lower gradients to improve reliability. A large amount of data has been collected on the pulsed behavior of cavities and SRF modules at various repetition rates and at various temperatures. This experience will be of great value in determining future optimizations of SNS as well in guiding in the design and operation of future pulsed superconducting linacs. This paper describes the details of the cryogenic system and RF properties of the SNS superconducting linac.

Status of cryogenic system for Spallation Neutron Source's superconducting radiofrequency test facility at Oak Ridge National Lab

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) is building an independent cryogenic system for its Superconducting Radiofrequency Test Facility (SRFTF). The system will provide refrigeration for the SNS cryomodule test and cavity test at both 2K (using vacuum pumped helium) and 4.5K for the maintenance purposes and the Power Upgrade Project of SNS. It will also provide the part of the cooling power needed to backup the existing CHL to keep the Linac at 4.5K during CHL future maintenance periods. The system will be constructed in multiple phases. The first phase is to construct an independent 4.5K helium refrigeration system with a helium Dewar and distribution box as the load interface. It is scheduled to be commissioned in 2013. Here we report on the design concept for the system and the status of the first phase of this project.