The goal of the proposed Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is to provide a short pulse proton beam of about 0.5 &mgr;s with average beam power of 1MW. To achieve such purpose, a proton storage ring operated at 60Hz with1×1014protons per pulse at 1GeV is required. The Accumulator Ring (AR) receives 1msec longH−beam bunches of 28mA from a 1GeV linac. Scope and design performance goals of the AR are presented. About 1200 turns of charge exchange injection is needed to accumulate 1mA in the ring. After a brief description of the lattice design and machine performance parameters, space charge related issues, such as: tune shifts, stopband corrections, halo generation and beam collimation etc. will be discussed. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.