Development of photoneutron target for 30 MeV RF electron linac

A 30 MeV, 3 kW on-axis coupled cavity RF Electron linac is being designed, developed at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and will be installed at Vizag . It will be used as a neutron generator and will produce ∼ 1012-1013 n/sec. The design of the 94 cell RF structure, rf system, modulator for the electron gun and the Neutron generation target is in the advanced design stage. This Accelerator can be used as a Prototype to study the Production of Medical Radioisotopes, Neutron rich Radioactive Nuclei, Energy Driver, Transmutation of Radioactive Waste, to study Electron beam based Nuclear physics including photonuclear reactions and target optimization for photoneutron production. In this paper the study of the target design is discussed. Neutrons can be produced by electron beams through photonuclear reactions. The total neutron production is composed of two parts: (1) photonuclear reactions via Bremsstrahlung, and (2) electroproduction via virtual photons (NCRP 79). In general, the cross sections of electroproduction are expected to be of the order of the fine structure constant, a ∼ 1/137, times the cross sections of photonuclear reactions. The neutron yield produced by electroproduction may become important only when the target is thin and the Bremsstrahlung yield is low