Thursday, June 4, 2009
New Accelerator Technology May Lead to Smaller, More Effective Hadron Therapy
Filed under: Radiation Oncology
As part of a project to test the potential of Hadron Therapy, which uses high energy particles instead of X-rays to attack tumors, a 20MeV accelerator is being built at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, UK. A big hurdle has been crossed, which will allow the device to be small enough to fit in a room, which should lead to the completion of the accelerator called PAMELA and experiments on tissue can then begin.
The Engineer reports:
The waveguide system, developed by Hertfordshire-based Q-par Angus, will distribute microwave energy to specific points around the accelerator ring.Alex Donnison, a physicist at Q-par Angus, explained that energy from these high-frequency microwaves will be used to energise particles in the accelerator.
The microwaves will be distributed to specific points in the ring through a Q-par Angus developed waveguide-distribution system.
'Waveguide is basically plumbing,' he said. 'It is rectangular sections of open metal and because of the high frequencies it is much more efficient to transfer microwaves in pipes.'
The particles (electrons) will originate from ALICE, another Daresbury Laboratory accelerator.
Donnison said the main challenge for Q-par Angus's microwave engineer, Simon Davis, was designing the system to fit into the accelerator's small size. 'We're not talking about CERN,' he said. 'It fits in a room. It is about 7.59m across.'
More from The Engineer...
Project page: CONFORM - the COnstruction of a Non-scaling FFAG for Oncology, Research and Medicine
Link: Q-par Angus...
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