Dortmund 2021 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AKBP: Arbeitskreis Beschleunigerphysik

AKBP 7: Electron Accelerators

AKBP 7.6: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 17. März 2021, 15:15–15:30, AKBPb

LightHouse − A Superconducting Electron Accelerator for the Production of Medical Isotopes — Guido Blokesch, Marc Grewe, Björn Keune, Jakob Krämer, Michael Pekeler, Christian Piel, •Christoph Quitmann, Claudio Serpico, Peter vom Stein, and Thu Trang Trinh — RI Research Instruments GmbH, Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 75, 51429 Bergisch Gladbach, Germany

We are in designing the first industrial superconducting electron linear accelerator, which will be used for high-volume productionof ⁹⁹Mo. This isotope decays to the short-lived ^99mTc, used in several ten-million diagnostic procedures worldwide, mostly with cancer patients. Customer is the Institute for Radioelements (IRE), Belgium, the world-leader in ⁹⁹Mo production. For decades ⁹⁹Mo has been produced by irradiating ²³⁵U in high-flux reactors. The new LightHouse facility will be using a (γ, n) reaction driven by a high intensity 75 MeV electron beam stopped in the ¹⁰⁰Mo target. This eliminates the need for reactors and minimizes nuclear waste. The electron accelerator uses proven technology from the Cornell CBETA facility, a high brightness DC photoinjector and 1.3 GHz superconducting RF cavities. The challenges are the very high beam power of 3.0 MW (75 MeV, 40 mA) and the high uptime (23 h/day, 360 d/year) required for producing commercially relevant quantities of the short-lived ⁹⁹Mo (t_1/2=66 h). At present, a Beam Test Facility is being constructed to demonstrate the performance of the photoinjector for this linear accelerator. We describe the design challenges and strategies for solution. We also present opportunities for thesis projects for students in accelerator physics.