Control system for ALID-7 linear accelerator used in radiation processing

The data acquisition and control system for the electron linear accelerator ALID-7 of 5.5 MeV and 0.7 kW, built in Romania, used on pilot-scale radiat ion processing, is discussed. The system provides: personnel and sensitive device protection against dangerous events; programmed interlocking and war ning signals during accelerator operation; single electron pulses or electr on pulse trains with small variations in pulse dose; control of electron pu lse length and repetition rate, electron beam intensity, magnetron frequenc y, high voltage level on magnetron and electron-gun modulators, sweeping am plitude and frequency, conveyor velocity, irradiation time, and electron pu lses number; simultaneous electron beam and microwave treatment. An importa nt feature of the installation is an original control technique for obtaini ng programmed beam single shots and pulse trains with programmed pulse numb er, pulse repetition frequency, and pulse duration, from a diode gun linear accelerator, by discrete pulse temporal position modulation of the gun ele ctron pulses and the magnetron microwave pulses. It is particularly useful for automatic control of absorbed dose rate level, irradiation process cont rol as well as in pulse radiolysis studies, single pulse dose measurement o r for research experiments where pulse-to-pulse reproducibility is required . (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0034-6748(99)04007-1].