RADIABEAM SYSTEMS, LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 04c

Description

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is an important pest management technique, however it relies on dangerous radioisotope-based gamma ray irradiators. In order to further the proliferation of the technique and reduce security concerns, non-radioisotope irradiators must be developed. While X- ray tube irradiators have been developed, they cannot produce energies above 1 MeV. A ~3 MeV irradiator is required to match the penetration of Co-60 and provide higher throughput. In response to this problem, RadiaBeam Systems will design an inexpensive, compact, high- current 3 MeV linac to act as the radiation source for a safe, self-contained irradiator for SIT and other applications. We plan to move to X- or C-band frequency to reduce size, use an innovative split-linac approach to reduce cost, utilize a novel X-ray conversion target geometry to spread the beam out on the target, widening the resulting X-ray beam and reducing the thermal load on the target to avoid water cooling, and select an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to allow for operation in environments with unstable electrical power. In Phase I, we will design the X-ray target and the linac, build the linac structure and demonstrate its performance using existing equipment on hand at RadiaBeam, and develop the initial design of the complete system. This will demonstrate feasibility so that we can build the complete irradiator system in Phase II and prepare for commercialization.The output of this project will be a safe, compact, high-throughput irradiator that can be used for insect, blood, cannabis and research irradiation. Approximately 5,000 devices containing 55,000 high-activity radionuclide sources are in use in the United States today. Linacs would be a feasible replacement for many of these sources, and thus it may have a wide-ranging potential to reduce the use of radioisotopes increase our nation’s nuclear security.