The RF system design for the Spallation Neutron Source

Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) accelerator includes a nominally 1000 MeV, 2 mA average current linac consisting of a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ), drift tube linac (DTL), coupled cavity linac (CCL), a medium and high beta superconducting (SC) linac, and two buncher cavities for beam transport to the ring. Los Alamos is responsible for the RF systems for all sections of the linac. The SNS linac is a pulsed proton linac and the RF system must support a 1 msec beam pulse at up to a 60 Hz repetition rate. The RFQ and DTL utilize seven, 2.5 MW klystrons and operate at 402.5 MHz. The CCL, SC, and buncher cavities operate at 805 MHz. Six, 5 MW klystrons are utilized for the CCL and buncher cavities while eighty-one 550 kW klystrons are used for the SC cavities. All of the RF hardware for the SNS linac is currently in production. This paper will present details of the RF system-level design as well as specific details of the SNS RF equipment. The design parameters will be discussed. One of the design challenges has been achieving a reasonable cost with the very large number of high-power klystrons. The approaches we used to reduce cost and the resulting design compromises will be discussed.