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

Detailed mechanical design of the LIPAc beam dump radiological shielding

The LIPAc is a 9 MeV, D+ linear prototype accelerator for the validation of the IFMIF accelerator design. The high intensity, 125 mA CW beam is stopped in a copper cone involving a high production of neutrons and gamma radiation and activation of its surface. The beam stopper is surrounded by a shielding to attenuate the resulting radiation so that dose rate values comply with the limits at the different zones of the installation. The shielding includes for that purpose polyethylene rings, water tanks and gray cast iron rings. A lead shutter has also been designed to shield the gamma radiation that comes through the beam tube when the linear accelerator is not in operation, in order to allow access inside the building for maintenance tasks. The present work summarizes the detailed mechanical design of the beam dump shielding and the lead shutter taking into account the design constraints, such as working conditions and other external loads, as well as including provisions for dismantling.Peer Reviewe

Detailed mechanical design of the LIPAc beam dump radiological shielding

The LIPAc is a 9 MeV, D+ linear prototype accelerator for the validation of the IFMIF accelerator design. The high intensity, 125 mA CW beam is stopped in a copper cone involving a high production of neutrons and gamma radiation and activation of its surface. The beam stopper is surrounded by a shielding to attenuate the resulting radiation so that dose rate values comply with the limits at the different zones of the installation. The shielding includes for that purpose polyethylene rings, water tanks and gray cast iron rings. A lead shutter has also been designed to shield the gamma radiation that comes through the beam tube when the linear accelerator is not in operation, in order to allow access inside the building for maintenance tasks. The present work summarizes the detailed mechanical design of the beam dump shielding and the lead shutter taking into account the design constraints, such as working conditions and other external loads, as well as including provisions for dismantling.Peer Reviewe

Validation of the Series Power Couplers of the LIPAc SRF Linac

International audienceIn the framework of the IFMIF/EVEDA project, the cryomodule of the Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator (LIPAc) will be assembled then tested at Rokkasho in 2019. Eight Series Power Couplers (PC) operating at 175 MHz were manufactured under a CEA contract, in order to equip this Cryomodule. They were all successfully RF conditioned up to 100 kW CW in TW and SW configurations. All the high RF power tests were performed under CIEMAT responsibility in BTESA Company premises, according to the CEA requirements. In order to fix difficulties encountered during the fab process, manufacturing and quality control have been analyzed in depth. Thanks to the corrective actions implemented, every PC reached the performances targeted for qualification. This paper will give details about this manufacturing phase and provide an overview of the obtained RF test results

Hardware availability calculations and results of the IFMIF accelerator facility

Hardware availability calculations have been done individually for each system of the deuteron accelerators of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). The principal goal of these analyses is to estimate the availability of the systems, compare it with the challenging IFMIF requirements and find new paths to improve availability performances.; Major unavailability contributors are highlighted and possible design changes are proposed in order to achieve the hardware availability requirements established for each system. In this paper, such possible improvements are implemented in fault tree models and the availability results are evaluated.; The parallel activity on the design and construction of the linear IFMIF prototype accelerator (LIPAc) provides detailed design information for the RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) analyses and allows finding out the improvements that the final accelerator could have. Because of the R&D behavior of the LIPAc, RAMI improvements could be the major differences between the prototype and the IFMIF accelerator design.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Beam Induced Fluorescence Measurements of 100 keV Deuterons in LIPAc Accelerator

International audienceThe LIPAc accelerator will be a linear CW deuteron accelerator capable of delivering a 9 MeV, 125 mA beam which aims to validate the technology that will be used in the future high power accelerator-driven neutron source, IFMIF. In summer 2017 a campaign of measurements was done during the injector commissioning, in which a Fluorescence Profile Monitor based on an Intensified CID camera (ICID) was used to measure the beam transverse profile at the extraction of the ion source. In this contribution we review the design of the ICID, its performance and discuss the measurements carried out. The performance of ICID monitors for its use in future accelerators will be assessed

Availability simulation software adaptation to the IFMIF accelerator facility RAMI analyses

Several problems were found when using generic reliability tools to perform RAM! (Reliability Availability Maintainability Inspectability) studies for the IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) accelerator. A dedicated simulation tool was necessary to model properly the complexity of the accelerator facility.; AvailSim, the availability simulation software used for the International Linear Collider (ILC) became an excellent option to fulfill RAMI analyses needs. Nevertheless, this software needed to be adapted and modified to simulate the IFMIF accelerator facility in a useful way for the RAMI analyses in the current design phase. Furthermore, some improvements and new features have been added to the software. This software has become a great tool to simulate the peculiarities of the IFMIF accelerator facility allowing obtaining a realistic availability simulation. Degraded operation simulation and maintenance strategies are the main relevant features.; In this paper, the necessity of this software, main modifications to improve it and its adaptation to IFMIF RAMI analysis are described. Moreover, first results obtained with AvailSim 2.0 and a comparison with previous results is shown.Peer Reviewe

Hardware availability calculations and results of the IFMIF accelerator facility

Hardware availability calculations have been done individually for each system of the deuteron accelerators of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF). The principal goal of these analyses is to estimate the availability of the systems, compare it with the challenging IFMIF requirements and find new paths to improve availability performances.; Major unavailability contributors are highlighted and possible design changes are proposed in order to achieve the hardware availability requirements established for each system. In this paper, such possible improvements are implemented in fault tree models and the availability results are evaluated.; The parallel activity on the design and construction of the linear IFMIF prototype accelerator (LIPAc) provides detailed design information for the RAMI (reliability, availability, maintainability and inspectability) analyses and allows finding out the improvements that the final accelerator could have. Because of the R&D behavior of the LIPAc, RAMI improvements could be the major differences between the prototype and the IFMIF accelerator design.Peer Reviewe

Availability simulation software adaptation to the IFMIF accelerator facility RAMI analyses

Several problems were found when using generic reliability tools to perform RAM! (Reliability Availability Maintainability Inspectability) studies for the IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) accelerator. A dedicated simulation tool was necessary to model properly the complexity of the accelerator facility.; AvailSim, the availability simulation software used for the International Linear Collider (ILC) became an excellent option to fulfill RAMI analyses needs. Nevertheless, this software needed to be adapted and modified to simulate the IFMIF accelerator facility in a useful way for the RAMI analyses in the current design phase. Furthermore, some improvements and new features have been added to the software. This software has become a great tool to simulate the peculiarities of the IFMIF accelerator facility allowing obtaining a realistic availability simulation. Degraded operation simulation and maintenance strategies are the main relevant features.; In this paper, the necessity of this software, main modifications to improve it and its adaptation to IFMIF RAMI analysis are described. Moreover, first results obtained with AvailSim 2.0 and a comparison with previous results is shown.Peer Reviewe

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