The Accelerator in a Suitcase for Isotope Replacement

Few-MeV linac based X-ray machines are widely used for radiotherapy, cargo inspection and industrial radiography. These machines are large, weighing several tons. Several years ago truck mounted and relocatable systems extended the reach of this technology into field applications like bridge inspection. Recently man-portable systems were introduced, which typically are comprised of three modules that can be independently moved without heavy machinery and set up at the application location. There is no to date a linac-based x-ray machine that can be carried around in a single piece, and fit in tight spaces that replaces radioactive isotope - based devices in industrial radiography and well-logging. Euclid Beamlabs proposes an inexpensive, ultra-compact linac-based x-ray source that can fit in a suitcase as a possible replacement for radionuclides. This novel design is based on a dielectric-loaded accelerator. The use of ceramics makes the transverse size of the accelerating waveguide comparable to that of a pencil. Because of this size reduction, additional weight reduction of shielding becomes possible. Based on this technology in Phase I we will produce an engineering design of the 1 MeV x-ray system ready for manufacturing in Phase II. This device will provide a novel functionality on the x-ray market. It will be compact like low-energy x-ray systems (e.g. dental x-ray) but it will have higher energy x-rays due to use of linac-based few-MeV electrons. This device can replace radioactive isotopes used for radiography applications in hard to reach places. Other potential applications are active interrogation systems and well logging.