The Spanish Scientific Counsellor, Santiago Herrero Amigo, visited Rokkasho on 7 September and witnessed the recently arrived components of the RF Power system, one of the various top technology hardware of Spanish contribution to LIPAc.

In the afternoon, he had an official encounter with Mamoru Toda, the mayor of Rokkasho, accompanied by IFMIF/EVEDA Project Manager, Shigeru O’hira and IFMIF/EVEDA Project Leader, Juan Knaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo taken at Rokkasho Village Office on September 7, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

We are proud to announce that the first components of the LIPAc’s RF Power System have arrived at Rokkasho site.

After a long sea travel from Spain, three containers reached Hachinohe port on 28^th August. Devanning at the port and transportation from Hachinohe to Rokkasho took three days starting from 31^st August.

 

  Containers at Hachinohe Port (left); and truck loaded and ready to depart to Rokkasho (right)

 

 

A total of fifteen packages were delivered to Rokkasho site; including seven RF high voltage power supplies (HVPS), two RF Modules, three electrical distribution cabinets, and auxiliaries.

From 2^nd to 4^th September, NKK Company opened all the wooden crates and started the installation of the components, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

   RF Power System’s wooden crates staged at the RF Power Bay Area (right) and two RF Modules (main and circulator platform) ready for its installation (right)

 

 

 

 

After almost five years since we arrived in Japan, my wife and I continue to astonish ourselves for the attractiveness and oddities that surround us.
We were impressed of the simplicity, morality and straightforwardness of the Japanese people; even though various events of daily life are often diametrically divergent and sometimes appear to me strange compared to the standards and customs of my home country, Italy.
For instance, it was a surprise to me to see the Japanese postman delivering the mail during wintertime; this might be normal worldwide, but in Japan, the peculiarity is that the postman delivers mail during winter, driving a motorcycle even during heavy snowfalls, with roads covered in white and slippery snow, and often icy!  Saturday and Sunday they still work regularly, 365 days per year the service is available and very efficient.
In Italy, Postmen use as well the motorcycle or bike, season allowing, normally is preferable a small car.

Legnaro, Italy, 3-5 June 2014

The 5th LIPAc Technical Meeting (LTM05) was held at Legnaro (PD)-LNL (Italy) from 3rd to 5th June 2014.

From 3rd to 5th June more than 40 participants coming from CEA (Saclay, France), INFN (Legnaro, Italy), JAEA (Rokkasho, Japan), CIEMAT (Madrid, Spain), F4E (Garching, Germany) and PT of IFMIF/EVEDA involved in the design, the manufacturing, the installation and the commissioning of LIPAc (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator), met in Legnaro during our 5th LIPAc Technical Meeting.

The status of the different components was presented. An important progress has been shown as well as important achievements reached:

• The construction progress at Rokkasho site, with the injector installation ready for check-out and the first phase of the commissioning
• The successful high power tests on the RFQ couplers developed by LNL, which reached a RF power above the initially specified 200 kW
• The RF power system and its readiness for factory performance test at INDRA (Spain)
• The MEBT components integration will be completed within January 2015.
• The LPBD, which final design report was recently approved, will be delivered in August 2014.
• The SRF Linac design and manufacturing are ongoing under the supervision of a dedicated working group.
• Two couplers tip modules and aluminum coupling cavity will be ready on September 2014.
• D-Plate will be completely assembled by November 2014 and ready for shipment by the end of 2015.
• The HEBT and Beam Dump main components have been completely designed; technical specifications are almost fully prepared and several manufacturing contracts have been launched.
• IMS (Interface Management System) was explained in details and emphasized its importance for the project.
• The Central Control System – MPS – PPS & Diagnostics was properly addressed and the need of an important coordinated work among all stakeholders was agreed.

 

During the meeting a dedicated session was devoted to the visit of the RFQ test bench set-up for the high power tests which have to be performed on last 3 module of the high flux Super module planned in the forthcoming weeks. During the visit we get the chance to see the clean room for the module assembly as well as the RFQ full size aluminum mock-up used to experiment the tuning of the cavity during the bead pull measurement.

Within the forthcoming months, it was clearly highlighted that the components needed for the 2nd phase of the commissioning will arrive like a “tsunami” at Rokkasho. A lot of integration activities will have to be performed within our tight schedule.

The next LTM06 is planned from 26 to 28 November 2014 in Rokkasho (Japan)

Rokkasho, Japan, 26-28 November 2014

The 6th LIPAc Technical Meeting (LTM06) was held in Rokkasho, BA site Fusion Energy Research Center (Japan), from 26th to 28th November 2014.

More than 40 participants, from CEA (Saclay, France), INFN (Legnaro, Italy), JAEA (Rokkasho, Japan), CIEMAT (Madrid, Spain), F4E (Garching, Germany) and PT of IFMIF/EVEDA attended the meeting to discuss progress in the design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the LIPAc (Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator).

Much technical information was exchanged by the various presenters, showing the status of the different components. After the previous LTM05, held in Legnaro (Italy), a lot of progress has been made, demonstrating the strong effort of the entire LIPAc community in Japan and Europe.

Important milestones were reached in the project and presented in detail during the meeting:

• Injector First Plasma! On 23th of October 2014. The first plasma was produced with 80W of RF power and a gas flow of 1.9 sccm at 75kV. The following day the RF power was incrementally to 130W.
• Injector First H+ Beam (Accelerator Vault was set under controlled area) 4^th November 2014 at 16:18 the first beam was extracted; H+ Beam at 70KeV/40mA, 46.7 mA, Faraday cup current 100 ms/s 10% duty. In the two following days of Injector commissioning were reached 105mA of beam current, great result!
• The RF power systems; 8 HVPS dedicated to the RFQ have already been manufactured, three of them have already been tested, and the remaining five are ready for test. They are expected to be delivered to Rokkasho in the first trimester of 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key MEBT components are already integrated and the conditioning of the buncher is progressing well. The MEBT is expected to arrive in Rokkasho after summer 2015.

• The LPBD final report was delivered and design for manufacture is now ongoing. The cooling system was confirmed stand-alone system, and the licensing strategy clarified.

  

• The SRF Linac design is basically finished and manufacturing contracts for the critical components are now being placed. The licensing strategy is ongoing…
• The D-Plate will be completely assembled by the end of 2014 and ready for shipment after summer in 2015.
• The HEBT and Beam Dump main components have been completely designed, the associated technical specifications are nearing completion and several manufacturing contracts have been launched.
• PPS-MPS and LCS are now in operation controlling the injector operation, some modifications will be necessary for the next phase.

A site visit of the Accelerator Prototype Building was held, so all participants could see the installed injector. The injector was assembled by JAEA and their subcontractor, with the assistance of CEA experts, positively demonstrating the close collaboration between all parties.

We are now eagerly awaiting the end of the commissioning phase of the Injector, with an expected completion date of July 2015. The next step will be the installation of the RF power system components, followed by the installation of the RFQ, MEBT, D-plate and LPBD. Since it was announced the arriving of a wealth of components in 2015, we must be all ready for their installation in parallel with other activities.

 

See you next LTM07 in Rokkasho:

LTM07 is planned for the 15th -19th June 2015, and will be held again in Rokkasho (Japan).