Fault-tolerant superconducting linac design for a 5-MW neutron spallation source

An 805-MHz superconducting linac is proposed, which could accelerate protons from 0.1 to 2.0 GeV in less than 730 m for a peak surface field in the cavities of 17 NN/m. The linac would furnish 5 MW of beam for a neutron spallation source, plus up to 10 additional MW of beam for other purposes. The design uses 454 elliptical cavities arranged in twelve groups, identical cavities being used within each group. Characterization of elliptical cavities for betas from 0.44 to 0.94 and the steps of the design procedure are presented. The effective peak power fed by each rf coupler would be less than 100 kW for all of the cavities. 6.5 kW of power a t 2 deg K would need to be extracted by the cryogenic system. Space charge was found to have a negligible effect on emittance growth. The design is such that one cavity per group could be inoperable, and the gradient in the remaining cavities could be increased to compensate. The longitudinal and transverse acceptances of the linac would not be significantly degraded under such fault conditions. A corresponding 402.5-MHz linac design is being developed.