Neutral beams for magnetic fusion reactors are at an early stage of development, and require considerable effort to make them into the large, reliable, and efficient systems needed for future power plants. To optimize their performance to establish specific goals for component development, systematic analysis of the beamlines is essential. Three ion source characteristics are discussed: arc-cathode life, gas efficiency, and beam divergence, and their significance in a high-energy neutral-beam system is evaluated.

Article discussing K-shell ionization by low-velocity ions. K-shell x-ray-production measurements are reported for protons, deuterons, and alpha particles incident on thin foils of copper, niobium, silver, and antimony.