Accelerators in industrial electron beam processing

High power electron beam accelerators are being used for a variety of industrial processes. Such machines can process a wide range of products at very high thruput rates and at very low unit processing costs. These industrial accelerators are now capable of producing up to 200 kW of electron beam power at 4.0 MV and 100 kW at 5.0 MV. At this writing, even larger units are contemplated. The reliability of these high power devices also makes it feasible to consider bremsstrahlung (x-ray) processing as well. In addition to the advance of accelerator technology, microprocessor control systems now provide the capability to coordinate all the operations of the irradiation facility, including the accelerator, the material handling system, the personnel safety system and various auxiliary services. Facility designs can be adapted to many different industrial processes, including use of the dual purpose electron/x-ray accelerator, to ensure satisfactory product treatment with good dose uniformity, high energy efficiency and operational safety and simplicity. In addition, equipment manufacturers like RDI are looking beyond their conventional DC accelerator technology; looking at high power 10-12 MeV linear accelerators with power levels up to 25 kW or more. These high power linear accelerators could be the ideal processing tool for many sterilization and food irradiation applications. (author)