Development of a family of low, medium and high energy electron beam accelerators

Commercial utilization of radiation technology started with sterilization of medical products using isotope gamma sources five decades ago. The pioneering efforts in R and D and applied aspects of radiation chemistry of polymers and the requirements for higher process throughputs matching the industrial production lines, necessitated the use of machine sources like electron accelerators. A range of high energy, high power accelerators suitable to process various materials have been developed for high speed polymerization, crosslinking and degradation applications. Presently, radiation processing of polymers using electrons has become an established technology being exploited commercially using reliable radiation equipment as well a suitable product conveying techniques for wire and cable insulations, heat shrinkable materials, surface curing etc. Advanced, latest generation high energy accelerators coupled with photon conversion targets are being installed and studied for their use in radiation sterilization, food irradiation and environmental applications. This paper gives a brief account of accelerators meant for radiation processing applications. (author)