Commissioning Plan of the IFMIF-DONES Accelerator

IFMIF-DONES (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility- DEMO-Oriented Neutron Early Source) - a powerful neutron irradiation facility for studies and certification of materials to be used in fusion reactors - is planned as part of the European roadmap to fusion electricity. Its main goal will be to characterize and to qualify materials under irradiation in a neutron field similar to the one faced in a fusion reactor. The intense neutron source is produced by impinging deuterons, from high-power linear deuteron accelerator, on a liquid lithium curtain. The facility has accomplished the preliminary design phase and is currently in its detailed design phase. At the present stage, it is important to have a clear understanding of how the commissioning of the facility will be performed, especially the commissioning of a 5 MW CW deuteron beam, together with the lithium curtain and the beam optimization for the neutron irradiation. In this contribution, the present plans for the hardware and beam commissioning of the accelerator will be given, focusing on the most critical aspects of the tiered approach and on the integration of the procedure with the lithium and tests systems

Lattice design for 5MeV-125mA CW RFQ operation in the LIPAc

The installation and commissioning of the LIPAc are on- going under the Broader Approach agreement, which is the prototype accelerator of the IFMIF for proof of principle and design. The deuteron beam will be accelerated by the RFQ linac from 100 keV to 5 MeV during the commission- ing phase-B and by the SRF linac up to 9 MeV during the phase-C. The commissioning phase-B+ will be imple- mented between phase-B and C to complete the engineer- ing validation of the RFQ linac before installing the SRF linac. The lattice for the deuteron beam of 5 MeV and 125 mA at the commissioning phase-B+ was designed

Lattice Design for 5MeV-125mA CW RFQ Operation in the LIPAc

International audienceThe installation and commissioning of the LIPAc are ongoing under the Broader Approach agreement, which is the prototype accelerator of the IFMIF for proof of princi-ple and design. The deuteron beam will be accelerated by the RFQ linac from 100 keV to 5 MeV during the com-missioning phase-B and by the SRF linac up to 9 MeV during the phase-C. The commissioning phase-B+ will be implemented between phase-B and C to complete the engineering validation of the RFQ linac before installing the SRF linac. The lattice for the deuteron beam of 5 MeV and 125 mA at the commissioning phase-B+ was designed

Cleanroom Assembly of the LIPAc Cryomodule

International audienceIn complement to the development activities for fusion reactors (JT-60SA & ITER), Fusion for Energy contributes to the R&D for material characterisation facilities. LIPAc is the technical demonstrator for the production and acceleration of a D⁺ beam that will be used for neutron production by nuclear stripping reaction on a liquid Li target. Since its first beam in 2014, the LIPAc construction and commissioning continues and will be concluded with the cryomodule installation, aiming for beam validation at nominal power. The cryomodule assembly, started in March 2019, was paused due to welding issues on the solenoid bellows. The slow pumping group used for the cleanroom assembly also needed improvement to overcome helium contamination. Two and half years were devoted to the pumping improvement and, repair, cold tests and high pressure rinsing of the solenoids. In August 2022, the cleanroom assembly resumed with the mounting of all power couplers to the SRF cavities. Despite good progress, the assembly had to be paused again to fix leaks on different vacuum components and a solenoid BPM port. This paper presents the issues faced and their solutions along the cold mass assembly

LIPAc RF power system: design and main practical implementation issues

The Linear IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) is a 9 MeV, 125 mA, continuous wave (CW) deuteron accelerator aimed to validate the technology for the IFMIF accelerators. The construction of LIPAc, which is currently the most powerful deuteron accelerator in the world, has been carried out under the Broader Approach (BA) Agreement between EU and Japan, and it is located at Rokkasho (Japan). CIEMAT is one of the five European Institutions that has participated in the design, manufacturing and commissioning/operation of the main accelerator components, among them, the Radio Frequency Power System (RFPS).The RFPS contains all the equipment necessary to generate the required RF power to feed the LIPAc cavities. These cavities demand eighteen RF power chains at 175 MHz being distributed as follows: eight 200 kW tetrode-based chains for the Radiofrequency Quadrupole (RFQ), two 16 kW solid-state chains for the re-buncher cavities, and eight 105 kW tetrode-based chains for the Superconducting RF Linac Half-Wave Resonators.The design of the RFPS main components is presented in this paper, including the tetrode-based chains, the Solid-State Power Amplifier (SSPA) for the re-buncher cavities, the High Voltage Power Supplies (HVPSs) for the final amplifiers anodes and the RF water cooling system. Additionally, the main difficulties encountered during the first months of the RFPS commissioning and operation will be described, together with the applied improvements