PERFORMANCE OF THE ELECTRON LINAC FOR RACE AT UT AUSTIN

摘要

A 20-MeV LINAC, constructed at the IdahornAccelerator Center at the Idaho State University, wasrninstalled in a beam port of the 1.1 MW University ofrnTexas at Austin (UT Austin) Mark II TRIGA researchrnreactor. This installation was part of a Reactor-AcceleratorrnCoupling Experiments (RACE) Project tornexamine the sub-critical multiplication of a reactor corerndriven by a LINAC. The performance of the LINAC, asrnmeasured by the observed reactor power, degraded overrnthe three-month experiment period. Performance of thernLINAC on any single day was observed to bernapproximately constant. Another power supply wasrnincluded as part of the installation to help increase thernpower output of the LINAC. The immediate effect of thernnew power supply was to increase the maximum observedrnreactor power, but once again the reactor powerrncontinued to decrease with time. Several components ofrnthe LINAC were tested and monitored to determine therncause of the decreasing performance. One of thernsuggestions for the loss of beam was an over-working RFrndriver. However, due to time constraints, the RF driverrnwas not re-tuned while at the UT Austin facility. Lessonsrnlearned from these experiments demonstrate the need forrnfull-time, experienced accelerator operators for beamrndiagnostics and greater time available for diagnostics.