Acceleration of ampere class H(-) ion beam by MeV accelerator

The H(-) ion accelerator R&D to realize the international thermonuclear experimental reactor neutral beam is ongoing at Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). The required performance for the prototype MeV accelerator developed at JAEA is 1 MeV, 500 mA (current density of 200 A/m(2)) H(-) ion beam at the beamlet divergence angle of less than 7 mrad. Up to 2005, 836 keV, 146 A/m(2) H(-) ion beam was successfully accelerated as the highest record of the current density at MeV class energy beams. In the present work, high current negative ion beam acceleration test was performed by increasing the beam extraction apertures from 3 x 3 (9 apertures) to 3 x 5 (15 apertures). By fixing the air leak at the source chamber due to backstream ions as well as the improvement of voltage holding capability by a new fiber reinforced plastic insulator ring, the performance of the MeV accelerator was improved. So far, H(-) ion beam of 320 mA was successfully accelerated up to 796 keV with the beam divergence angle of 5.5 mrad. The accelerated drain current including the electron reaches close to the power supply limit for the MeV test facility. The heat flux by the backstream ion during the above beam acceleration was estimated to be 360 W/cm(2). The Cs leakage to the accelerator during the test campaign (Cs total input of 5.0 g) was 0.26 mg (7.0 microg/cm(2)). This is considered to be the allowable level from the viewpoint of voltage holding.