High Power, Low Energy Linac for Radiation Processing

An efficient low-energy electron linac which could produce low cost radiation for large volume bulk processing is described. In particular, the energy in a beam of 12 MeV electrons impinging on a thin-walled wastewater duct is used effectively to disinfect the water without the harmful side effects of chlorination. The main feature of the design is that about one half of the electrical power consumed is delivered as electron beam power. A standing-wave electron linac, operated with 100% duty factor, based on the proven performance of the Chalk River Electron Test Accelerator and producing 600 kW of electron beam power at 12 MeV would deliver 105 rads (1000 grays) to 3.8 × 107 l/day) (107 U.S. gallons/day). A water processing linac would consist of an electron gun, a buncher, a graded-ß accelerator and several ß=1 modules. Redundancy in accelerator and rf modules would be provided for reliability and to allow servicing of pre-accelerator and rf modules concurrently with accelerator operation.