Design considerations for long-pulse, high-repetition-rate modulators for recirculating heavy-ion accelerators

Conference · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:10118176

Newton, M A; Reginato, L L; Yu, S S

Heavy-ion accelerators are considered to be one of the promising driver alternatives for inertial fusion. In an inertial fusion driver, multiple beams of heavy-ions are accelerated to kinetic energies consistent with the fusion target requirements. During acceleration, the beams of heavy ions are compressed in time from an initial pulse duration that range from 10`s to 100`s of microseconds to a final pulse duration of approximately 10 nanoseconds. The compressed beam of heavy ions is then focused on the target in a reactor chamber where the energy released from the fusion reaction is converted to thermal energy and eventually to electricity. A recirculator is an induction accelerator which accelerates the particles and bends them in a closed path with pulsed dipole magnets. A single beam traverses the same accelerating cavities many times (50--100) to acquire its final energy. The primary motivation to evaluate recirculators is the potential for low cost that results from re-using many of the most expensive accelerator components, such as the induction cells, pulsers, and focusing magnets, during an acceleration sequence. One of the areas of technology that is critical to the feasibility of a recirculator is the modulator system required to accelerate the ion beams. This system greatly impacts the overall design of the recirculating accelerator. System studies have been conducted to evaluate the cost and efficiency of several recirculator configurations as function of various parameters. These system studies have helped identify desirable induction cell driver characteristics. These characteristics and the trade-offs that were evaluated will be presented and discussed.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 10118176
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC--105651; CONF-910640--48; ON: DE92007332
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
430301
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700411
700480
COMPONENT DEVELOPMENT
DESIGN
FIELD EFFECT TRANSISTORS
FREQUENCY MODULATION
HEAVY ION ACCELERATORS
HEAVY ION FUSION REACTIONS
INDUCTION
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT DEVICES
ION BEAMS
ION SOURCES
MAGNETIC COMPRESSION
MATERIALS STUDIES