Status Report on the Installation of the Warm Sections for the Superconducting Linac at the SNS

The SNS superconducting linac (SCL) consists of 23 cryomodules (CMs), with possibly 9 additional CMs being added for future energy upgrade from 1 GeV to 1.3 GeV[1, 2]. A total of 32 warm sections separate the comparatively short CMs, and this allows a CM exchange within 48 hours, in order to meet demanding beam availability specifications. The 32 warm section chambers are installed between each pair of CMs, with each section containing a quadrupole doublet, beam diagnostics, and pumping [3]. The chambers are approximately 1.6 m long, have one bellows installed at each end for alignment, and are pumped by one ion-pump. The preparation and installation of these chambers must be made under stringent clean and particulate-free conditions, in order to ensure that the performance of the SCL CMs is not compromised. This paper discusses the development of the cleaning, preparation, and installation procedures that have been adopted for the warm sections, and the vacuum performance of the system.