CEA, Gif-sur-Yvette
INFN/LNL, Legnaro (PD)
CIEMAT, Madrid
The IFMIF project (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility) is one of the three parts of the Fusion Broader Approach signed by Japan and Europe, aiming at studying materials which must resist to very intense neutron radiations in future fusion reactors. One major system of this project is its two accelerators producing the neutron flux by accelerating Deuteron particles up to 40 MeV against a Lithium target. In a first phase called EVEDA (Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activity), a full scale prototype accelerating particles up to 9 MeV is being studied and constructed in Europe, to be installed in Japan. Two unprecedented performances are required: the very high power and very high intensity of 2x5 MW and 2x125 mA CW. That leads to numerous unprecedented challenges: harmful losses even for those as low as 10-6 of the beam, non-linear dynamics induced by very strong space charge forces, difficulties for equipment and diagnostic implementations in the high compact sctructure, need of specific tuning strategies in this context. These issues are highlighted in this article, and the ways they are addressed are detailed.
