AbstractRecirculating induction accelerators (recirculators) have been investigated as possible drivers for inertial fusion energy production because of their potential cost advantage over linear induction accelerators. Point designs were obtained by Barnard et al. (UCRL-LR-108095, 1991; Phys. Fluids B Plasma Phys. 5 (1993), 2698) and many of the critical physics and technology issues that would need to be addressed were detailed. A collaboration (Friedman et al., 32–33 (1996) 235) involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers is now developing a small prototype recirculator in order to demonstrate an understanding of nearly all the critical beam dynamics issues that have been raised by Barnard et al. and subsequently.We review the design equations for recirculators (which have been incorporated into a MATHEMATICA-based design code) and demonstrate how, by keeping crucial dimensionless quantities constant, a small prototype recirculator was designed which will simulate the essential beam physics of a driver. We further show how important physical quantities such as the sensitivity to errors of optical elements (in both field strength and placement), insertion-extraction, vacuum requirements and emittance growth scale from small prototype to driver-size accelerator.