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Brookhaven is responsible for designing, manufacturing, and testing
the Spallation Neutron Source’s accumulator ring (below), which
bunches and intensifies a beam of hydrogen ions coming from the
linear accelerator before the ions are sent to a mercury target.
At the entrance of the ring, hydrogen ions pass through a thin
carbon foil which strips the electrons from the ions, producing
protons. After circulating about 1,000 times in the ring, these
protons are sent into the target.
Ensuring the integrity of the foil is one of the BNL scientists’
most delicate tasks. Because the foil heats up, it can tear, break,
or vaporize, so the scientists must make sure that its temperature
stays lower than 2,000 degrees Celsius.
 Within
Brookaven’s Collider-Accelerator Department, about 100 scientists,
engineers, and technicians in 12 teams are working on various parts
of the accumulator ring, such as the vacuum pipe, the magnets, and
the foil at the entrance of the ring. More than 20 industrial firms
are also manufacturing various components and systems for the
accumulator ring. Also, with help from Brookhaven’s Central Shops
Division, specialized devices such as beam position monitors, a foil
support module, and beam scrapers for the ring have been built at
the Laboratory.
Ten years ago, the Lab gained expertise in building an
accelerator, called the Booster,
which is a machine similar to the SNS’s accelerator ring. The
Booster was designed to increase the energy of protons and heavy
ions headed for the Alternating
Gradient Synchrotron (AGS). Whereas the AGS achieves 60 trillion
particles per pulse, the SNS is expected to achieve 200 trillion
particles in a single pulse – a factor of three improvement over the
world intensity record first achieved by the AGS in 1995.
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