DEVELOPMENT OF A SUPERCONDUCTING RF MODULE FOR ACCELERATION OF PROTONS AND DEUTERONS AT VERY LOW ENERGY

A prototype superconducting accelerator module housing six 176 MHz half wave resonators and three superconducting solenoids is currently under production at ACCEL as part of a 40 MeV linear accelerator at the SOREQ NRC [1]. The module will accelerate protons and deuterons from energy of 1.5 MeV/u up to 6.5 MeV. The design is based on a peak electric field of 25 MV/m and maximum 10 W of power dissipated into the helium bath by each cavity. Main design considerations of the cavities, solenoids, tuners and couplers as well as for the module especially in view of assembly and alignment will be presented. Cold test results of the cavities obtained in ACCEL’s new cold RF test facility will be presented. All components like tuners, helium vessel, solenoids and couplers as well as thermal shield, magnetic shield and vacuum vessel have been produced in the meantime and the assembly of the module is almost finished. The module will be RF tested at 4.2 K at ACCEL before shipment to Israel in order to demonstrate cavity performance after assembly.