Commissioning plan for a high-current proton linac

Abstract

High-power proton linacs (E>500 MeV) are potentially useful for transmutation applications, such as the production of tritium, In production applications, high availability is essential. Achieving high availability requires an accelerator design that simplifies maintenance and accommodates commissioning procedures designed to minimize tune-up time. These are worthwhile goals for any accelerator, but the high beam powers (170 MW) and heavy beam loading of the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) linac introduce significant new challenges. This paper describes the commissioning plan, as developed to date.