Fabrication and Surface Treatment of Superconducting Rf Single Spoke Cavities for the Myrrha Project

The MYRRHA project, based at SCK•CEN (Belgium), aims at coupling a 600 MeV proton accelerator to a subcritical fission core with a maximal output of 100 MWth. The first phase of the project, MINERVA, includes the design, construction, and commissioning of a 100 MeV superconducting RF linac in order to demonstrate the machine requirements in terms of reliability and fault tolerance. The MINERVA linac comprises several cryomodules, each containing two Single Spoke 352.2 MHz cavities made out of high RRR niobium and operating at 2K. The fabrication and surface treatment of the Single Spoke RF Cavities is currently ongoing and completely carried out by RI Research Instruments GmbH (Germany); the first pre-series cavities were completed and delivered for cold testing. Main highlights of the fabrication include the deep-drawing of complex shapes, such as central spokes and outer caps of the cavity, which was successfully accomplished. As for the surface treatment, RI has commissioned, tested, and effectively started utilizing a new rotational buffered chemical polishing facility; this is required to polish the cavity inner surface, while ensuring an almost uniform material removal.