A COST-EFFECTIVE ENERGY UPGRADE OF THE ALPI LINAC AT INFN- LEGNARO*

The ALPI SC linac at INFN-LNL is being constantly upgraded in terms of maximum beam energy (Ef) and current, made available for experiments. Presently, a liquid-N cooling scheme is being applied to the RF power couplers of the 16 full Nb resonators, to keep them locked at 5 MV/m, vs. present 3 MV/m. A further upgrade of the 44 “medium beta section” cavities, changing the cavity Cu substrates, was prototyped and is reported at this conference: however it is not fully funded yet and is extremely time-consuming. A cost-effective Ef upgrade is proposed here: to move 2 SC buncher cryostats, which house a single working SC QWR but were designed for 4, at the end of ALPI, equipping them with 4 Nb/Cu QWRs each (new bunchers would either be NC QWRs or a single SC cavity cryostat). The contribution of these cryostats to Ef would be extremely effective: e.g. a Ef~10 MeV/A (Ibeam≥ 1 pnA) Pb beam, a very attractive tool for the nuclear physics community, is achievable. A being performed upgrade of ALPI cryoplant, expected to increase the refrigeration capability by ~25%, makes this change possible today. Details of this solution, as well as its limits, will be presented and discussed