International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Research Applications and Utilization of Accelerators

4-8 May 2009, Vienna

Energy Monitoring Device for Electron Beam Energy Monitoring

M. Lavalle¹, P.G. Fuochi¹, A. Martelli¹, U. Corda¹, A. Kovács², K. Mehta³, and F. Kuntz⁴

¹CNR – ISOF, Bologna, Italy
²Institute of Isotopes, HAS, Budapest, Hungary
³Brünner Strasse, Vienna, Austria
⁴Aérial, Parc d’Innovation, Illkirch, France

Corresponding Author: lavalle@isof.cnr.it

An easy-to-use and robust “energy monitoring device” has been developed for reliable detection of day-to-day small variations in the electron beam energy, a critical parameter for quality control and quality assurance in industrial radiation processing. It has potential for using on-line, thus providing real-time information. Its working principle is based on the measurement of currents collected by two aluminium absorbers of adequate thicknesses, insulated from each other and positioned in a faraday cup-style aluminium cage connected to the ground. The device has been extensively tested in the energy range of 2 - 12 MeV under standard laboratory conditions at Aérial, Institute of Isotopes and CNR–ISOF using different types of electron accelerators; namely, a Van Der Graaf accelerator (0.5 to 2.4 MeV), a TESLA LPR-4 LINAC (3 to 6 MeV) and a Lband Vikers LINAC (7 to 12 MeV), respectively. This device has been also tested in high power electron beam radiation processing facilities, one equipped with a 7-MeV LUE-8 linear accelerator used for crosslinking of cables and for medical device sterilization, and the other equipped with a 10-MeV Rhodotron TT100 recirculating accelerator used for in-house sterilization of medical devices. Based on our tests, we suggest that such a device is capable of detecting deviation in the beam energy as small as 40 keV.

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