Status and results from the Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator

The design for the Next Linear Collider (NLC) at SLAG is based on two 11.4 GHz linacs operating at an unloaded acceleration gradient of 50 MV/m increasing to 85 MV/m as the energy is increased from 1/2 TeV to 1 TeV in the center of mass[1]. During the past several years there has been tremendous progress on the development of 11.4 GHz (X-band) RF systems. These developments include klystrons which operate at the required power and pulse length, pulse compression systems that achieve a factor of four power multiplication and structures that are specially designed to reduce long-range wakefields. Together with these developments, we have constructed a 1/2 GeV test accelerator, the NLC Test Accelerator (NLCTA). The NLCTA will serve as a test bed as the design of the NLC is refined. In addition to testing the RF system, the NLCTA is designed to address many questions related to the dynamics of the beam during acceleration, in particular the study of multibunch beam loading compensation and transverse beam break-up. Tn this paper we present the status of the NLCTA and the results of initial commissioning.