Speaker
Description
The U.S. Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) now operates with 1.2 MW of beam power on target with the near-term goal of delivering 1.4 MW and a longer-term goal of delivering > 2 MW required by the planned Proton Power Upgrade (PPU) and Second Target Station (STS) projects. In early of 2018 we plan to replace the entire 2.5 MeV injector configuration which includes the ion source, Low Energy Beam Transport (LEBT) and Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator with one which is currently being tested on a research accelerator called the Beam Test Facility (BTF) located in an SNS facility. This report first provides a physical description of the new injector components, external antenna ion source (latest configuration), LEBT assembly and new RFQ. Since fall of 2016, this system has been tested extensively with regard to output beam current, persistence, emittance and energy. The results of these experiments will be presented here showing the system to be capable of supporting baseline SNS 1.4 MW operations with significant margin as well as meeting facility upgrade requirements. This represents a significant performance upgrade over the current SNS front end system.
