Accumulator Ring Upgrades
The Basics
Once the Linear Accelerator accelerates the ion beam, the ions pass through a diamond foil to strip off their electrons, which leaves only protons in the beam. To create a more intense proton beam, powerful magnets bend the beam and inject the protons into the accumulator ring. There the protons are bunched together while traveling about 1,000 times around the 271-yard-long ring—in less than one-millionth of a second. The bunches of protons are then steered by extraction magnets toward a liquid mercury Target System 60x per second.
PPU Upgrades
In the beam injection area of the ring, two new chicane magnets and two new injection dump magnets will be installed, while the power supplies for the existing injection magnets will be upgraded. The thickness of the stripping foil will be increased to maintain stripping efficiency at increased beam energies.
The extraction magnet power supplies will be upgraded to provide a stronger magnetic field for extracting the higher-energy beam from the accumulator ring.
Due to the higher operating power for all the ring magnets, the water-cooling system for their power supply will be upgraded by adding a cooling loop, pumping station, and heat exchanger.
One of two existing extraction magnet tanks that contain seven magnets.
