A prototype negative ion accelerator, based on a pre-accelerator normally used for positive ion acceleration, was used on the Cadarache MV negative ion beam facility up to 2004. Even though this accelerator demonstrated the feasibility of SINgle GAP, SINGle APerture (SINGAP) accelerators it was not possible to produce beams with the optical quality required for ITER. A new 'ITER-like' accelerator, which is a scaled down version of the ITER SINGAP accelerator, has been built and installed on the Cadarache 1 MV test bed. The objective of the 'ITER-like' is to demonstrate reliable D− beam acceleration as close as possible to 1 MeV with a current density j− ≈ 200 A m−2 with the beam optics required for ITER, i.e. a beamlet divergence of ⩽7 mrad and beamlet steering within ±2 mrad of that specified. High voltage hold-off tests have been performed and 940 kV has been held without breakdowns. Beams up to 850 keV (D−, 15 A m−2) were obtained after four weeks of experiments and the highest current density that has been obtained so far is 150 A m−2 (D−, 580 keV, 23 mA for one beamlet). The required beam optics for ITER has been obtained at near perveance match (at 120 A m−2 D−, 727 keV, 18.5 mA for one beamlet), but a larger than expected halo has been measured.