Beam commissioning of the ifmif eveda very high power rfq

IFMIF, the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility [1], is an accelerator-based neutron source that will use Li(d,xn) reactions to generate a flux of neutrons with a broad peak at 14 MeV, equivalent to the conditions of the Deuterium-Tritium reactions in a fusion power plant. IFMIF is conceived for fusion materials testing. The IFMIF prototype linear accelerator (LIPAc) is jointly developed by Europe and Japan within the IFMIF EVEDA project: it is composed of an ion source, a LEBT, a RFQ, a MEBT and a SC linac, with a final energy of 9 MeV. The 4-vane Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ), developed by INFN in Italy, will accelerate a 130 mA deuteron beam from 0.1 to 5 MeV in continuous wave, for a beam power of 650 kW. The 9.8 m long, 175 MHz cavity is composed of 18 x 0.54 m long modules, flanged together and aligned within 0.3 mm tolerance. The RFQ was completed, delivered and assembled at the Rokkasho site and is presently under extended RF tests. The second phase of beam commissioning (up to 2.5 MeV/u) was scheduled to start at the end of 2017. Several unexpected issues and incidents significantly delayed the original program, which is however proceeding step by step toward the full achievement of its goals.