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Title: Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX) - II Quarterly Report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/974542· OSTI ID:974542

LBNL has received American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding to construct a new accelerator at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to significantly increase the energy on target, which will allow both the Heavy Ion Fusion (HIF) and Warm Dense Matter (WDM) research communities to explore scientific conditions that have not been available in any other device. For NDCX-II, a new induction linear accelerator (linac) will be constructed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). NDCX-II will produce nano-second long ion beam bunches to hit thin foil targets. The final kinetic energy of the ions arriving at the target varies according to the ion mass. For atomic mass unit of 6 or 7 (Lithium ions), useful kinetic energies range from 1.5 to 5 or more MeV. The expected beam charge in the 1 ns (or shorter) pulse is about 20 nanoCoulombs. The pulse repetition rate will be about once or twice per minute (of course, target considerations will often reduce this rate). Our approach to building the NDCX-II ion accelerator is to make use of the available induction modules and 200 kV pulsers from the retired ATA electron linac at LLNL. Reusing this hardware will maximize the ion energy on target at a minimum cost. Some modification of the cells (e.g., reduce the bore diameter and replace with higher field pulsed solenoids) are needed in order to meet the requirements of this project. The NDCX-II project will include the following tasks: (1) Physics design to determine the required ion current density at the ion source, the injector beam optics, the layout of accelerator cells along the beam line, the voltage waveforms for beam acceleration and compression, the solenoid focusing, the neutralized drift compression and the final focus on target; (2) Engineering design and fabrication of the accelerator components, pulsed power system, diagnostic system, and control and data acquisition system; (3) Conventional facilities; and (4) Installation and integration. The project will be considered completed when the accelerator and pulsed power systems are in place and tested, and we begin beam production and acceleration. The period of performance for this project is July 7, 2009 to Mar 31, 2012, and the total funding, including contingency, is $11.0 M.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Accelerator& Fusion Research Division
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
974542
Report Number(s):
LBNL-2770E; TRN: US1002555
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English