Commissioning of the SNS front-end systems at Berkeley Lab

Abstract

Construction of a 2.5-MeV linac injector, the Front-End (FE) for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) project, was completed in the spring of 2002. Of the major FE subsystems, the rf-driven H- ion source, the electrostatic LEBT, and the first of four RFQ modules had been com-missioned by the spring of 2001, and commissioning of the remaining RFQ modules as well as the full system in-cluding the elaborate MEBT was carried out in Jan. through May, 2002. The Front End will be shipped to Oak Ridge, starting in June, 2002, and re-commissioned after installation at the SNS site. This paper gives an overview of FE major design features and experimental results ob-tained during the commissioning process at LBNL. 1