Beam Chopper for Transportable Linear Accelerator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional transportable linear accelerator systems face issues with uncontrolled ion beam loss and high material costs due to the application of gold or aluminum on beam-facing surfaces, which limits radioactivity reduction and increases system weight and cost.
Innovation Solution
Incorporation of a beam chopper to filter and control proton beams before acceleration, preventing uncontrolled beams from hitting electrodes and reducing neutron generation, along with a drift tube linear accelerator configuration that allows for thinner shielding and easier transportation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If gold or aluminum is applied on beam-facing inner surfaces of drift tubes to reduce radioactivity, then radioactivity from surface-hit beams is reduced, but uncontrolled losing ion beams still enter the drift tube linear accelerator and material costs and manufacturing costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The beam chopper is installed before the drift tube linear accelerator to preliminarily remove uncontrolled losing ion beams from the beam path. This preliminary action prevents these beams from reaching the drift tubes, eliminating the need for expensive gold or aluminum coatings while still achieving radioactivity reduction.
Solution Approach 2:
The beam chopper extracts or removes the harmful uncontrolled losing ion beams from the overall beam flow before they can enter the drift tube linear accelerator. This extraction approach targets only the problematic portion of the beam, avoiding the need to protect the entire drift tube surface with expensive materials.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If thick concrete is used to shield against neutron leakage from copper-based accelerators, then neutron radiation is prevented, but the total weight of the transportable system increases making it difficult to transport
Solution Approach 1:
The invention converts the potentially harmful uncontrolled losing ion beams into a beneficial filtering mechanism. By allowing these beams to be removed by the beam chopper rather than hitting the accelerator components, the system reduces neutron generation at the source, transforming a harmful radiation problem into a controlled beam selection process.
Solution Approach 2:
The beam chopper performs preliminary beam conditioning by removing uncontrolled losing ion beams before they can generate neutrons in the accelerator. This preliminary action prevents neutron generation upstream, eliminating the need for heavy downstream shielding.
3Use of energy by moving object
If copper material is used for radio frequency quadrupole accelerator and drift tube accelerator to enhance power efficiency, then power efficiency is improved, but neutron generation occurs when proton beams hit electrodes requiring thick concrete shielding
Solution Approach 1:
The beam chopper extracts uncontrolled losing ion beams that would otherwise strike the copper accelerator components and generate neutrons. This extraction maintains the power efficiency benefits of copper materials while eliminating the neutron generation problem by removing the problematic beams before they reach the electrodes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The beam chopper effectively suppresses neutron generation, allowing for thinner concrete shielding and reducing system weight, while the drift tube configuration enhances transportability and power efficiency, achieving cost-effective radioactivity reduction.
Implementation Method 1
a beam chopper that cuts off from the pre-accelerated proton beams, uncontrolled proton beams, to thereby cause only the proton beams controlled by the pre-accelerator to pass through the beam chopper
Implementation Method 2
a pre-accelerator that clusters and pre-accelerates proton beams generated by an ion source
Implementation Method 3
a post-accelerator that accelerates up to a given energy the proton beams having passed through the beam chopper
Data Source
AI summary
For the purpose of providing a transportable linear accelerator system which can restrain entering of losing ion beams deviated from a trajectory therefor, to thereby efficiently achieve reduction in radioactivity at low cost, and a transportable neutron source equipped therewith, a transportable linear accelerator system is configured to be provided with a beam chopper just before an inlet of a post-accelerator, thereby to cut off, from the proton beams pre-accelerated by a pre-accelerator, uncontrolled proton beams, and thus to radiate only the controlled proton beams to the post-accelerator, so that the proton beams are prevented from hitting an acceleration electrode, etc. of the post accelerator.