High current pulsed linear ion accelerators for inertial fusion applications
Pulsed ion beams have a number of advantages for use as inertial fusion drivers. Among these are classical interaction with targets and good efficiency of production. As has been pointed out by members of the accelerator community, multistage accelerators are attractive in this context because of lower current requirements, low power flow per energy conversion stage and low beam divergence at higher ion energies. On the other hand, current transport limits in conventional accelerators constrain them to the use of heavy ions at energies much higher than those needed to meet the divergence requirements, resulting in large, costly systems. We have studied methods of neutralizing ion beams with electrons within the accelerator volume to achieve higher currents. The aim is to arrive at an inexpensive accelerator that can advantageously use existing pulsed voltage technology while being conservative enough to achieve a high repetition rate. Typical output parameters for reactor applications would be an 0/sup +/ beam of 30 kA at 300 MeV. We will describe reactor scaling studies and the physics of neutralized linear accelerators using magnetic fields to control the electron dynamics. Recent results are discussed from PULSELAC, a five stage multikiloampere device being tested at Sandia Laboratories.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-04-0789
- OSTI ID:
- 6682646
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-78-0778C; CONF-780515-2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ACCELERATORS
BEAM NEUTRALIZATION
BEAM TRANSPORT
BEAMS
HEAVY ION ACCELERATORS
I-BEAM TYPE REACTORS
ION BEAM TARGETS
ION BEAMS
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SCALING LAWS
TARGETS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTORS