Beam dump window design for the Spallation Neutron Source

The Spallation Neutron Source accelerator systems will provide a 1 GeV, 1.44 MW proton beam to a liquid mercury target for neutron production. Beam tuning dumps are provided at the end of the linac (the Linac Dump) and in the Ring-to-Target transport line (the Extraction Dump). Thin windows are required to separate the accelerator vacuum from the poor vacuum upstream of the beam dump. There are several challenging engineering issues that have been addressed in the window design. Namely, handling of the high local power density deposited by the stripped electrons from the H-beam accelerated in the linac, and the need for low-exposure removal and replacement of an activated window. The thermal design of the linac dump window is presented, as is the design of a vacuum clamp and mechanism that allows remote removal and replacement of the window.