Development of the Machine Protection System for FERMILAB'S ASTA Facility

Fermilab’s Advance Superconducting Test Accelerator (ASTA) under development will be capable of delivering an electron beam with up to 3000 bunches per macropulse, 5Hz repetition rate and 1.5 GeV beam energy in the final phase. The completed machine will be capable of sustaining an average beam power of 72 KW at the bunch charge of 3.2nC. A robust Machine Protection System (MPS) capable of interrupting the beam within a macropulse and that interfaces well with new and existing controls system infrastructure is being developed to mitigate and analyze faults related to this relatively high damage potential. This paper will describe the component layers of the MPS system including main actuators such as the FPGA-based Laser Pulse Controller, the Beam Loss Monitoring system design and the controls and related work done to date.