Physical start-up of the first stage of IREN facility

The full-scale scientific research complex IREN will comprise a 200-MeV linear accelerator LUE-200 with a beam power about 10 kW, a subcritical multiplying target, and beam infrastructure with experimental pavilions, as well as technological, control, safety and service systems. The characteristics of the full-scale complex IREN (integral neutron yield 10¹⁵n/s and pulse width 0.6 μs) will allow it to rank among the best neutron sources of such class GELINA (Belgium) and ORELA (USA). The realization of the project is conducted in several stages. The first stage includes the construction of the LUE-200 linear accelerator and nonmultiplying target. This will make possible to carry out experiments which require precision neutron spectroscopy in the energy range from fractions of eV to hundreds of eV already at the first stage of IREN. The results of the physical start-up of the first stage of IREN facility at the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research are presented. General scheme and current status of the electron linac are described. Achieved parameters are: pulsed electron beam current – 2.0 A; electron energy – 30 MeV; pulse width – 100 ns; repetition rate – 25 Hz; integral neutron yield (3÷5)•10¹⁰ n/s.