NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN HIGH AVERAGE POWER SHORT-PULSE INDUCTION ACCELERATORS FOR INDUSTRIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPLICATIONS

Short-pulse accelerator technology developed during the early 1960s th rough the late 1980s is being extended to high average power systems c apable of use in industrial and environmental applications. Kilowatts to megawatts of beam power will be required for processes requiring hi gh dose levels and/or high volume throughput systems. Accelerating pot entials can range from less than 1 MV to as much as 10 MV depending on the type of beam, depth of penetration required, and the density of t he product being treated. This paper addresses the status of a new fam ily of high average power systems, with output beam power levels up to 300 kW, that use saturable core switches to achieve output pulse widt hs of 50 to 80 ns. Inductive adders and field emission cathodes are us ed to generate beams of electrons or X-rays at up to 2.5 MeV over area s of 1000 cm(2). Similar high average power technology is being used a t less than or equal to 1 MeV to drive ion beam sources for treatment of material surfaces over 100s of cm(2).