Improvement of high-voltage performance of acceleration tubes by cleaning the walls with a high-pressure water jet

Takeuchi, Suehiro; Nakanoya, Takamitsu; Kabumoto, Hiroshi; Yoshida, Tadashi

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 513(3), p.429 - 438, 2003/11

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(03)02080-1

At the JAERI Tandem accelerator, an acceleration tube replacing plan is proceeding to increase the acceleration voltage toward 20 MV. Lengthy conditioning is generally necessary for a large tube system. We had an idea to clean the tubes with high-pressure water-jet rinsing before installation. We cleaned tubes and tested them at 1 MV and 3 MV. The both results exhibited that the voltages went beyond the rated voltages and discharge activities were much less than the old records. During the test of new tubes at 3 MV, the conditioning proceeded well and an extremely stable condition was fulfilled within 24 hours. In conclusion, the cleaning was found to be a very promising way to improve high-voltage performance of the tubes in a large tube system.