Progress toward a prototype recirculating induction accelerator for heavy-ion fusion

The US Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Program is developing induction accelerator technology toward the goal of electric power production using heavy-ion beam-driven inertial fusion (HIF). The recirculating induction accelerator promises driver cost reduction by repeatedly passing the beam through the same set of accelerating and focusing elements. We present plans for and progress toward a small (4.5-m diameter) prototype recirculator, which will accelerate K⁺ ions through 15 laps, from 80 to 320 keV and from 2 to 8 mA. Beam confinement is effected via permanent-magnet quadrupoles; bending is via electric dipoles. Scaling laws, and extensive particle and fluid simulations of the space-charge dominated beam behavior, have been used to arrive at the design. An injector and matching section are operational. Initial experiments are investigating intense-beam transport in a linear magnetic channel; near-term plans include studies of transport around a bend. Later experiments will study insertion/extraction and acceleration with centroid control