A partially refurbished ion source for the LNL cyclotron has been successfully tested after the failure of a weld that caused a water leak inside the plasma chamber, completely compromising the operation of the original source.
The Technical Office and the Mechanical Workshop of the National Laboratories of Legnaro (INFN), together with the cyclotron group of the accelerator division, have designed and manufactured a new version of the plasma chamber of the cyclotron ion source. The new design and the subsequent construction became essential due to a water leak. The chamber has been developed as a single piece without any welding joints in order to permanently delete unexpected sealing issues. Moreover, this solution allows for better control of the magnets position within the housings.
The new source was then reassembled with new permanent magnets and tested before being reinstalled in the cyclotron injection line. Finally, with the support of Best Theratronics personnel, the first test with an H– ion beam was conducted, extracting ions at an energy of 40 keV and a current of 5 mA. Further tests to verify the stability and final performance of the new source are ongoing.
The restoration of the cyclotron ion source by all actors at LNL has been essential in avoiding a time consuming solution that the cyclotron provider would have offered.
The new strategy of detailed planning activities within the SPES project, dividing it into phases, allows colleagues with diverse skills from various divisions to contribute efficiently to achieve the objective more rapidly and efficiently. This is an example of how we can put together all efforts and expertise of LNL in order to enable solving unexpected problems and to stick to the planned schedule of the SPES project implementation.
