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Lecture 11 - Applications of Particle Accelerators

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  • Speaker: Prof. Philip Burrows - John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, Oxford University

Accelerators Worldwide

  • Radiotherapy: 44%
  • Ion Implantation: 40%
  • Industrial Processing: 9%
  • Biomedical Research: 6%
  • X-ray Synchrotron: 0.5%
  • Physics Research: 0.5%

Accelerator-Based Cancer Treatment

Radiotherapy linear accelerators (linacs) utilise X-rays for cancer treatment.

The first medical application of an accelerator was the X-ray imaging of Mrs. Roentgen's hand in 1895.

The availability of proton therapy facilities may establish a standard of care requiring their use for paediatric cancer patients, as failure to do so could be considered malpractice.

Industrial Applications of Electron and Ion beams

Electron beams generate ionising electromagnetic showers, which disrupt chemical bonds.

This process can either induce permanent damage (e.g., in sterilisation) or facilitate the formation of new bonds (e.g., in polymer cross-linking or curing).

Rhodotrons, which produce 1-10 MeV electrons, are increasingly used in the growing market for sterilisation applications.

Ion beam implantation is a critical technique for semiconductor doping.

Surface hardening via ion implantation involves embedding elements such as tungsten, chromium, titanium, tantalum, nitrogen, and boron into steel components to enhance surface hardness or prevent corrosion.

Accelerator-Based Mass Spectrometry

Separation and counting of atomic species (e.g., \(\ce{^{14}C}\) and \(\ce{^{12}C}\))

The sensitivity of AMS reaches 1 part in \(10^{14}\).

Approximately 100 AMS machines are operational worldwide.

Ion beam analysis has been employed to examine the surface of paintings at the Louvre.

Future Applications in Security and Energy

Security and defence

  • Isotope separation using industrial-scale AMS
  • Stockpile stewardship
  • Development of directed energy weapons utilising electromagnetic radiation
  • Long-range standoff inspection for detecting nuclear materials, explosives, chemical and biological weapons, and personnel

Key challenges include achieving high power output while maintaining compact and robust designs.

Energy

Global net energy consumption is projected to increase by 44% by 2030.

Accelerator-driven subcritical reactors (ADS)

Key challenges include ensuring energy efficiency, reliability, redundancy, and cost-effectiveness.

Nuclear Waste Transmutation

The reactor is loaded with long-lived spent fuel from conventional fission reactors, which would otherwise require 300,000 years to decay naturally.

Neutrons generated by the accelerator transmute the waste into isotopes with significantly shorter half-lives (e.g., 500 years).