Advanced buck converter power supply "ABCPS" for APT

To meet the klystron power supply requirements for the Accelerator for the Production of Tritium (APT), a DC power distribution system with a modern DC-DC switching power supply is proposed as one of the options. One power supply is required for each of the approximately 250 continuous wave klystron RF power sources. As the power supplies are one of the largest cost elements in the accelerator, it is desirable to utilize the most economical design. This proposed advanced buck converter high voltage power supply (ABCPS) does not require large transformers to step-up the output voltage and is potentially the lowest cost power supply approach. The power supply must meet the APT requirements for output performance, fault protection for the klystron, high efficiency, high reliability, good maintainability, and be readily manufacturable. A full-scale prototype power supply is being designed and fabricated. The progress of the prototype design, performance validation, and testing follows.