An effort is underway at the Tandem Van de Graaff Facility (TVDG) at Brookhaven National Laboratory to improve the performance of the negative heavy ion sources used during the Heavy Ion Physics program. The primary focus of this effort is to increase the pulsed beam current available for injection into the MP7 accelerator by improving ion source intensity, emmitance, and reliability. Development efforts are focused upon two commercially available sputter sources: 1) The General Index Model 860, 2) The Peabody Scientific PSX‐120.