Simon Jolly (Imperial College)
Contrary to popular belief, the generation and acceleration of high energy particle beams is not the result of some sort of primitive voodoo, but a little-known branch of high energy physics called accelerator physics. The accelerator physics group at IC is currently involved in a number of projects, including the development of future proton accelerators. High power proton accelerators (HPPA's) with beam powers in the megawatt range have many possible applications, including drivers for spallation neutron sources, neutrino factories, waste transmuters and tritium production facilities. These applications typically propose beam powers of 5 MW or more compared to the highest beam power achieved from a pulsed proton accelerator in routine operation of 0.16 MW at the ISIS spallation neutron source at RAL. The Front End Test Stand (FETS) is an accelerator test assembly currently under development at RAL, in collaboration with IC and Warwick. The aim of FETS is to demonstrate the production of a high quality 60 mA, 2 ms, 50 Hz, chopped H- beam at 3 MeV. This requires the development of a high current H- source, an accelerator section based on RadioFrequency Quadrupoles (RFQ's), a fast beam chopper and corresponding beam transport. Also under development are a series of novel beam diagnostics. This talk will focus on the accelerator background behind FETS and where the technical challenges lie, as well as the contribution of the IC accelerator group to the development of FETS. Plus some voodoo.