A test stand for Ion sources of ultimate reliability

9 pages.-- En: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Negative Ions, Beams and Sources.The rationale behind the ITUR project is to perform a comparison between different kinds of H− ion sources using the same beam diagnostics setup. In particular, a direct comparison will be made in terms of the emittance characteristics of Penning Type sources such as those currently in use in the injector for the ISIS (UK) Pulsed Neutron Source and those of volumetric type such as that driving the injector for the ORNL Spallation Neutron Source (TN, U.S.A.). The endeavour here pursued is thus to build an Ion Source Test Stand where virtually any type of source can be tested and its features measured and, thus compared to the results of other sources under the same gauge. It would be possible then to establish a common ground for effectively comparing different ion sources. The long term objectives are thus to contribute towards building compact sources of minimum emittance, maximum performance, high reliability-availability, high percentage of desired particle production, stability and high brightness.The project consortium is lead by Tekniker-IK4 research centre and partners are companies Elytt Energy and Jema Group. The technical viability is guaranteed by the collaboration between the project consortium and several scientific institutions, such the CSIC (Spain), the University of the Basque Country (Spain), ISIS (STFC-UK), SNS (ORNL-USA) and CEA in Saclay (France).Peer reviewe