Apparatus for extracting multiple laser compton scattering photon beams

Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering (“LCS”) photon beams using a laser Compton scattering reaction, the apparatus including: a linear accelerator for accelerating an electron beam; and an LCS gamma ray generation module including an LCS gamma ray generator for irradiating a target with an LCS gamma ray generated by emitting laser light to an electron beam released from the linear accelerator and a bending magnet for adjusting a direction of the electron beam passed through the LCS gamma ray generator, wherein at least two LCS gamma ray generation modules are sequentially arranged to form a closed loop together with the linear accelerator.

Claims

1. An apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering (“LCS”) photon beams, the apparatus comprising: a linear accelerator for accelerating an electron beam; and at least two LCS gamma ray generation modules, each LCS gamma ray generating module including: an LCS gamma ray generator for irradiating a target with an LCS gamma ray generated by emitting a laser light to an electron beam released from the linear accelerator; and a bending magnet for adjusting a direction of the electron beam passed through the LCS gamma ray generator, wherein the at least two LCS gamma ray generation modules are sequentially arranged to form a closed loop together with the linear accelerator.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least two LCS gamma ray generation modules are arranged to irradiate the target in common with LCS gamma rays.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least two LCS gamma ray generation modules generate LCS gamma rays of different energy from each other, thereby allowing photonuclear reactions to occur for targets of nuclides different from each other.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bending magnet bends the electron beam having a bending angle θ greater than 0° and less than or equal to 90°.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the LCS gamma ray generator comprises: a laser light source that emits a laser light; and a mirror that reflects the laser light in the direction of the electron beam.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the mirror comprises a multilayer structure mirror that reflects only the laser light of a predetermined wavelength band and that is transparent to LCS gamma rays.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a view conceptually illustrating an LCS phenomenon.

(2) FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating an apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering photon beams according to an embodiment of the present invention.

(3) FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating an apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering photon beams according to another embodiment of the present invention.

BEST MODE

(4) Specific structures or functional descriptions presented in the embodiments of the present invention are illustrated only for the purpose of describing the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention, and the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention may be implemented in various forms. In addition, the present invention should not be construed as limited to the embodiments described herein, but should be understood to include all modifications, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope thereof.

(5) Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be provided description in detail with respect to the present invention.

(6) With reference to FIG. 2, an apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering photon beams according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a linear accelerator 110 for accelerating an electron beam, and a plurality of LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 generate LCS gamma rays and to adjust a direction of the electron beam.

(7) The linear accelerator 110 is for accelerating electrons and may be provided with an injector 111 at an inlet side for injecting electrons into a microwave cavity in which the electrons are accelerated or decelerated. In addition, the linear accelerator 110 may use as an energy recovery LINAC (ERL) constituting a closed loop with a plurality of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 and may be provided with a beam dump 112 capable of absorbing the electron beam by being installed at an outlet side thereof. Such a linear accelerator 110, in which acceleration of the electron beam is made, has a configuration the same as in the related art for the acceleration and focusing of the electron beam, and therefore description thereof will be omitted. In addition, a beamline having a vacuum state is provided between the linear accelerator 110 and each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210, thereby transporting the electron beam. At this time, it should be appreciated that equipment or instrumentation, which is a well-known supplementary installation used for a particle accelerator to focus or diagnose the electron beam, may be added in the beamline.

(8) The LCS gamma ray generation module 210 includes an LCS gamma ray generator 211 irradiating a target with the LCS gamma ray generated by emitting laser light to an electron beam released from the linear accelerator 110 and a bending magnet 212 adjusting a direction of the electron beam passed through the LCS gamma ray generator 211.

(9) The LCS gamma ray generator 211 may include a mirror 4 allowing the laser light 2 generated by a laser light source 1 to be emitted in the direction of the electron beam 3, wherein the mirror 4 may use a multilayer structure mirror that reflects only the laser light 2 of a predetermined wavelength band and is transparent to the LCS gamma rays. Such an LCS gamma ray generator 211 may be a separate chamber provided in the beamline in which the electron beam 3 is transported.

(10) The LCS gamma ray generator 211 generates LCS gamma rays having a solid angle by elastic scattering between the accelerated electron beam 3 and the laser light 2, and nuclear waste, which is a long-living fission products (LLFPs), is irradiated with the LCS gamma rays, thereby causing a nuclear transmutation reaction to proceed.

(11) The bending magnet 212 is for changing a path of the electron beam 3 and may be provided by an electromagnet or a superconducting magnet capable of generating a uniform magnetic field.

(12) A plurality of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210, each configured as described above, is configured such that at least two are sequentially arranged to form a closed loop together with the linear accelerator 110. In the present exemplary embodiment, eight units of nuclear waste, which is the LLFPs, and ten LCS gamma ray generation modules are illustrated, but the number and layout thereof may be variously modified.

(13) Nuclear waste, which is the LLFPs, is irradiated with the LCS gamma rays generated in each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 to cause a nuclear transmutation reaction to proceed, and one unit of nuclear waste, which is the LLFPs, may be arranged corresponding to one LCS gamma ray generation module 210 but is not limited hereto. For example, in the present embodiment, the fourth nuclear waste may be irradiated with the LCS gamma rays by three LCS gamma ray generation modules 210A, 210B, and 210C to increase the nuclear transmutation reaction efficiency.

(14) Each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 is emitted by the laser light 2 having different energy, thereby generating various LCS gamma rays using a single linear accelerator 110 as a whole. Here, the various LCS gamma rays may be determined depending on a nuclide of the nuclear waste, which is the LLFPs, to be disposed of.

(15) The electron beam 3 generated by the linear accelerator 110 has a cycle of generating the LCS gamma rays, in the plurality of LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 sequentially arranged, and of entering into the electron accelerator 110 again. In addition, depending on a target (nuclear waste), the arrangement of the LCS gamma generation module 210 may be configured in various ways.

(16) On the other hand, when taking a look at loss of the electron beam 3 generated in each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210, theoretically, a collision probability of the accelerated electron beam 3 and laser light 2 in the LCS reaction is only 0.0016%, so 99.9984% of the electrons in each LCS gamma ray generation module do not respond to the laser light 2. In addition, scattered electrons also maintain 99.1% of energy thereof compared to before being scattered. Therefore, the electron beam 3 passed through the LCS gamma ray generation module 210 has sufficient energy to cause an additional LCS reaction in a LCS gamma ray generation module of a next stage.

(17) In addition, an energy loss ΔE of the electron beam 3, the energy loss being able to be generated in the bending magnet 212 of the LCS gamma ray generation module 210, may be calculated using [Equation 1] below.

(18) $\begin{array}{cc}\frac{X^E}{X^t}\left(\mathrm{GeV}/s\right)=\frac{c\left(m/s\right)C_{\gamma }\left(m/{\mathrm{GeV}}^3\right)}{2\pi }\frac{E^4\left({\mathrm{GeV}}^4\right)}{{\rho }^2\left(m^2\right)}& \left[\mathrm{Equation}1\right]\end{array}$

(19) Here, E is the energy of the electron beam 3, c is a speed of light, and C.sub.y is a constant. Meanwhile, ρ is a bending radius and is represented by following [Equation 2].

(20) $\begin{array}{cc}\rho \left(m\right)=\frac{\mathrm{lengthofmagnet}\left(m\right)}{\mathrm{Bendingangle}\left(\mathrm{rad}\right)}\frac{l}{\theta }& \left[\mathrm{Equation}2\right]\end{array}$

(21) From [Equation 1] and [Equation 2], it may be seen that the larger the bending angle in the bending magnet 212, the greater the energy loss. Therefore, in order to reduce the energy loss, the bending angle may be configured to be small. For example, the energy loss that may be generated when the bending angle is a right angle (90°) is no greater than 0.4%. Accordingly, the bending angle θ of the electron beam 3 of the bending magnet 212 may be determined between 0<θ≤90°.

(22) FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating an apparatus for extracting multiple laser Compton scattering photon beams according to another embodiment of the present invention, wherein the bending magnet 212 of each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules 210 has a bending angle θ of the electron beam 3 of a right angle (90°). In the present embodiment, it is shown that five units of nuclear waste (#2, #4, #8, #11, and #14) are irradiated with the LCS gamma ray by two gamma ray generation modules.

(23) As described above, the present invention may minimize the energy loss of the electron beam 3 by determining the bending angle of the electron beam 3 in the bending magnet 212 of each of the LCS gamma ray generation modules. In addition, by appropriately configuring the LCS gamma ray generation modules according to the number or nuclide of the target, it may increase a probability of inducing a specific nuclear transmutation using one linear accelerator or may collectively carry out induction of nuclear transmutation for various nuclides.

(24) The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings. In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various substitutions, modifications, and changes may be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS IN THE DRAWINGS

(25) 110 Linear accelerator

(26) 210 LCS gamma ray generation module

(27) 211 LCS gamma ray generator

(28) 212 Bending magnet