Development on superconducting cavity for the proton accelerator

Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) promotes the Neutron Science Project (NSP) aiming to develop the fundamental studies on life science and so forth and the transmutation treating technique for high level radioactive wastes referring to a problem at the nuclear field by realizing a stronger neutron source with two figures on comparison to those of conventional sources. As the high power proton accelerator for driving the neutron source is required to have a higher beam output power with proton accelerator, it is an important problem for its actualization to establish a small beam-loss and highly efficient accelerator. For meeting to such requirements, a proton accelerator using superconducting technique was selected by NSP. The superconducting proton accelerator was the first trial in the world, of which development has been promoted under cooperation with the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). Here was described that a test stand for development of superconductive accelerating cavity was manufactured to establish the highest performance of a single cell cavity test in the world. (G.K.)