LINEAR ACCELERATOR FOR PRODUCTION OF TRITIUM: PHYSICS DESIGN CHALLENGES*

In the summer of 1989, a collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory conducted a study to establish a reference design of a facility for accelerator production of tritium (APT). The APT concept is that of a neutron-spallation source, which is based on the use of high-energy protons to bombard lead nuclei, resulting in the production of large quantities of neutrons. Neutrons from the lead are captured by lithium to produce tritium. This paper describes the design of a 1.6-GeV, 250-mA proton cw linear accelerator for APT.