You are on page 1of 33

MEEN 632- P ROJECT R EPORT

Design of a Portable Electron Beam Facility

Authors:
Siva Praneeth VAYUGUNDLA
Behzad A BDOLLAHI
Muhammed S AYRAC

December 15, 2014

Presented to:
Dr. David S TAACK
Prof. Yuval D ORON

Abstract
Contaminated soil at the oil drilling sites can be easily treated by an electron beam of sufficient
intensity and energy releasing profitable by-products like oil. The increasing number of such sites
and the need for the remediation of the soil calls for a portable electron beam facility. This project
details the design of such facility, which can be transported to the desired location, and can be set
up within three days. The design includes an electron accelerator of variable power, which along
with the variable-speed portable conveyors, allows for the control of the dose received by the soil.
The backscattered electrons and the Bremsstrahlung radiation are shielded by thick walls made
by sandwiching soil in between thin sheet-metal walls. The oil vapors produced as a by-product
are extracted using a suction fan. Designing was done in the 3D-modelling software (SolidWorks)
and stress analysis was performed on the structural components, to validate the design. The entire
design fits on one oversized trailer and two standard trailers. Preliminary calculations indicate that,
with the proposed design, irradiation of more than 50 metric tons of soil per day can be achieved
at the highest power capacity (245 kW) of the accelerator used.

Contents
1

Introduction

Background

Objectives

Facility Design
4.1 Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1 Source . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2 Dose Rate and Conveyance .
4.1.3 Shielding . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.4 Miscellaneous Components
4.2 Structural Analysis (FEA) . . . . .

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

.
.
.
.
.
.

7
7
9
12
14
16
18

Future Work

22

Conclusions

24

A Appendix
25
A.1 Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
A.2 Works Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

ii

List of Figures
2.1
2.2

Types of accelerators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A medical device treatment facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4
4

3.1

Process flowchart of the facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9

2D layout of the facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


3D sectional view of the facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Soil penetration depth (cm) vs beam energy (MeV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Accelerator assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Top view and front perspective view of the separation junction . . . . . . . . . . .
Shielding thickness h(m) vs Beam energy (MeV ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3D model showing the sheet-metal walls along with their supports . . . . . . . . .
3D view of hydraulic jacks designed in SolidWorks and Generator from Generac .
3D view of the chamber and, Transparent view of the chamber showing the weldment
frame, suction fan and the scan horn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Von-Mises stresses for the sheet-metal wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Iso clipping plot of FOS for the sheet-metal wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Von-Mises stresses for the trailer bed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Iso clipping plot of FOS for the trailer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8
9
10
11
13
14
16
17

4.10
4.11
4.12
4.13

17
19
19
21
21

A.1 Temperature Rise of Materials Due to Irradiation[2] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

iii

List of Tables
4.1
4.2

Specifications of the electron beam accelerator [5] and a custom sized scan horn . . 10
Constants to calculate the necessary shielding with beam energy . . . . . . . . . . 15

iv

1. Introduction
Pollution of water, land, and air is a widespread concern of global proportions. In many countries,
the government laws require the pollution levels to be controlled to safe values. Any violation of
these laws is a severe crime causing health concerns. Of particular concern is the soil contamination
which is very common in the oil industries. Drilling of the ground for oil extraction inevitably
results in some oil spilling at the location of drilling. This soil needs extraction, contamination
treatment, and dumping back at the same location. There are several treatment procedures existing
today to address this problem. One of the common procedures is thermal treatment of the soil,
but more energy and time efficient procedures are available now with the advent of technology.
Electron beam (eBeam) technology is one such promising modern technology used to irradiate the
soil with electron beams and separate the liquid wastes like water and oil from the contaminated
soil.
Currently, a facility with eBeam and X-ray irradiation equipment at Texas A&M is owned and
managed by National Center for Electron Beam Research [1]. This facility is housed in a 16,000
sq-feet area on campus. It has two vertically mounted 10 MeV1 , 15 kW2 eBeam Varian linear
accelerators and one horizontally mounted 5MeV, 18 kW X-Ray Varian linear accelerator. Both
fundamental and translational projects are pursued by the center. Various programs in Vaccine
Development, Pasteurization, Sterilization, Environmental Treatment Technologies, Material Transformations,
1 unit

Mega Electron Volt


Kilo Watt

2 unit:

Fundamental Biological Responses and Quantifying Public Health Benefits are currently in progress
funded by both federal and private sources.
For soil remediation, there is a need to set up a facility at the desired location of treatment to
save time and fuel in transportation of the soil. Once the soil at the site has been remediated, the
facility needs to be dismantled which is impossible for an immobile facility without destruction.
This calls for a portable facility that can be transported from one place to another and be set up in
few days. This project details a design of such portable eBeam soil treatment facility that can be
carried to the contamination site on two trailer platforms. Shielding of radiation while maintaining
the portability is the major task of the project apart from the structural design. In this report,
Chapter 2 gives a background about the technology. Chapter 3 explains the process flow and lists
the objectives of the project. Chapter 4 details the design process from the design phase to analysis
phase of the components. The future work and conclusions are presented in the Chapters 6 & 7
respectively. The last chapter contains the references used for the project. Most of these references
are web-based sources as this is a design project.

2. Background
Irradiation of soil involves exposing soil to ionizing radiation to destroy the harmful microorganisms
like bacteria, viruses, or insects and also produce by-products like oil if the soil is contaminated
with oil. There are several ionizing radiations from the sources like cobalt 60, x-ray beam and
electron beam that could be used to treat the soil. For this project, electron beam source was used.
This is also called as electron beam processing. Electron beam processing is used in industry for
various other applications like sterilization of medical and pharmaceutical goods, cross-linking
of polymer-based products, irradiation of food products, etc. Electron beam accelerators use an
on-off technology, with a common design being similar to that of cathode ray telivision. The exact
principle behind their working might vary depending on the type of accelerator: linear or circular
shown in Figure 2.1(a) and Figure 2.1(b) respectively.
A typical electron beam facility (Figure 2.2) includes an electron beam accelerator, a conveyor
system and shielding walls to shield the radiation. This figure shows cargos being scanned by two
beams, one electron beam and other X-Ray. Dual beam treatment is very common in sterilization
of medical products and also sterliation of foods. For this project, only electron beam treatment is
considered due to its low shielding requirements compared to other sources.

(a) Linear Accelerator: Dynamitron

(b) Circular Accelerator: Rhodotron

Figure 2.1: Types of accelerators

Figure 2.2: A medical device treatment facility containing a circular accelerator, roller conveyors,
and concrete shielding walls

3. Objectives
The main objective of this project is to design a portable eBeam soil treatment facility. Figure 3.1
shows the process schematic of the facility that needs to be designed. Specific objectives of the
project are listed below:
Be able to transport to site and setup in three days.
Be electrically powered.
Have input conveyance of soil particles 0.1 mm3 to 1 cm3 , with a density of 1.3 kg/m3 .
Process soils at a minimum rate of 5000 kg/day.
Have outputs for treated soil, produced gases and liquids.
Handle product gases as warm as 500oC.
Operate E-beam treatment 24 hr/day at 400kJ/kg input to soil.
Be radiation shielded with soil/water that are available on site.
Use steel for structural components
The process path followed to achieve the above objectives is discussed in the Chapter 4, where
the facility layout, each of the component designs and their validations are illustrated in detail.

6
Figure 3.1: Process flowchart of the facility

4. Facility Design
Pre-design decision making is very important for any design project. So, first the designs of various
off-the-shelf 1 that need to be sourced were identified; second, their specifications and dimensions
were obtained. After the concept generation for the pre-design tasks, a layout of the system was
designed. Electron beam accelerator, conveyors, diesel generator, air-suction fans and hoppers
were sourced from commercial suppliers. Shielding walls and structures to hold the conveyors, and
the accelerator were designed in SolidWorks and all the components were assembled by using the
pre-designed layout. Each of these component designs will be discussed in detail in the Section 4.1.
Structural analysis was done on the designed components to validate the designs and is discussed
in Section 4.2

4.1

Layout

The general layout of the facility can be found below in the Figure 4.1. And the 3D Model of it is
shown in the Figure 4.2. It is designed to fit an electron beam accelerator, conveyor system, and
shielding. It is a single entry single exit system, where the soil is loaded in the hopper of the first
conveyor and the treated soil coming out of the process chamber is collected in a hopper to dispose
off.
1 available

commercially; not specially designed or custom made

Figure 4.1: 2D layout of the facility-1) Accelerator 2) Scan horn location 3) Shielding walls 4)
Input conveyor 5) Output conveyor

Figure 4.2: 3D sectional view of the layout-1) Accelerator 2) Scan Horn 3) Shielding walls, 4)
Hydraulic jacks and trailer 5) Conveyors

4.1.1

Source

The selected electron beam source is produced by IBA Industrial. This company is located in
Newyork and is a global leader in electron accelerator industry. More than 250 accelerators have
been installed worldwide till now. They produce a variety of electron accelerators, linear and
circular, with beam outputs from 550 keV to 10 MeV. Treating the soil uniformly, is a primary
requirement. Lower energy beams require less shielding but distribute energy non-uniformly in
the soil. So, higher energy beams were chosen for uniform dose.
The type of electron beam production considered for this soil irradiation was a circular accelerator,
Rhodotron TT 300. It produces electrons in a range of 1-10 MeV. Higher the energy of electrons,
higher is their penetration depth into the soil. The 90% penetration depth is governed by the energy
dose equation (4.1) below,

Table 4.1: Specifications of the electron beam accelerator [5] and a custom sized scan horn
Accelerator
Rhodotron TT 100

Scan Horn

Energy
Maximum Guaranteed Power
Maximum Guaranteed Current
Diameter
Height
Weight
Scan Length
Scan Width

2 to 10 MeV
245 kW
35 mA
3m
2.4 m
11 ton
30 cm
12 cm

R90 = 0.307 E/ ,

(4.1)

where R90 is the 90% penetration depth in cm, E is the beam energy in MeV and is the density
of the soil in g/cm3 . Figure 4.3 shows the depths of the soil at which 90% of energy of electrons
is deposited. Energy distribution is assumed to be uniform up to 90% of the energy deposition
and the rest 10% energy is deposited non-uniformly over a larger thickness, which can be ignored.
From the Figure4.3 it can be seen that at 10 MeV, a considerable penetration of 2.5 cm can be
achieved. The electron beam released by the accelerator is horizontal and hence is bent 90o to
irradiate the soil. The bent beam is scanned over the soil through a two-staged scan horn system
that produces a non-diverging beam output, maintaining an uniform dose delivery rate. Table 4.1
shows the specifications of the accelerator and the scan horn.

Figure 4.3: Soil penetration depth (cm) vs beam energy (MeV)

10

Figure 4.4: Accelerator assembly-1) Accelerator 2) Scan horn 3) Location where hydraulic jack
can be inserted to lift the assembly 4) Structure holding the accelerator
The design of the accelerator involves how it will be located and positioned in the facility. The
considerations involved in the design include the elevation of the accelerator from the ground. To
make the level of the accelerator controllable and flexible for scan horns of different dimensions, a
system of synchronous hydraulic jacks were used (discussed in Section 4.1.4. During the transportation,
the accelerator is firmly bolted to the main beams of the trailer. On site, it is unbolted from the
trailer to be free to change the level. Figure 4.4 shows the 3d model of the accelerator resting on
the structure which can be lifted by hydraulic jacks. The ability of accelerator to produce a beam
between 1 and 10 MeV allows for different dose rates and amount of energy deposited in the soil.
This will allow for remediation of soil of different densities, different composition and also varying
throughput rates as per the requirement. The scan horn essentially means that the soil is passing
through a 30 cm wide plane of electrons that are being scanned over a range of 12 cm at a high
frequency forming a rectangular area of irradiation on the soil.

11

4.1.2

Dose Rate and Conveyance

An appropriate amount of dose (400 kGy2 needs to be given to the soil for the removal of organic
compounds adhered to it. In order to obtain the values of the parameters like conveyance speed,
an analytical method was employed. Before starting the calculations, several assumptions had to
be made. For the highest throughput, the accelerator needs to be operated at its maximum beam
voltage (10 MeV) and power (245 kW). The electron beam is assumed to be uniformly producing
10 MeV electrons over the scan area.Also, assumption was made that the contour of the surface of
the soil that is being irradiated is planar. A 30 cm wide conveyor belt was assumed supplied by a
commercial provider Miniveyor [6], a portable conveyor producer. For a depth of penetration of
2.5 cm (Figure 4.3, and a 30 cm wide conveyor, the conveyance speed for the required dose rate of
400 kGy can be obtained as shown below:

mD
=P

(4.2)

(Av)D = P,

(4.3)

where m is the mass flow rate of the soil, D is the dose into the soil, P is the power of the beam,
A is the area of cross-section of the soil passing through the beam, v is speed of the conveyor belt.
So, from the above equation,

v=

245kW
1300kg/m3 (30cm 2.5cm) 400kJ/kg

= 3.77m/min

(4.4)

This calculation also gives a rough idea of the throughput of the product. Substituting the value of
the speed in the equation (4.2), a mass-rate of 2,205 kg/hr or 52,930 kg/day can be obtained. This
result is for the maximum power of the accelerator and hence for maximum throughput. For any
different throughput requirements, the power required can be reverse-calculated using the same
2 unit:

kilo Gray or kJ/kg

12

Figure 4.5: Top view and front perspective view of the separation junction
equation (4.2).
The energy dose (90 %) is uniformly distributed in the soil up to 2.5 cm depth. The rest of
energy is deposited in the conveyor belts if the soil layer thickness is only 2.5 cm. To use the energy
dose effectively and to protect the conveyor belts from over heating, the soil layer was assumed
to be 10 cm (4 times the penetration depth). While in operation, there is always a constant input
of soil of 2.5 cm thickness from the input conveyors and a constant output of soil of same layer
thickness. In steady state, every conveyor except the input and the exit conveyor will have 10 cm
of soil on them. To achieve this while maintaining 10 cm layer under the beam, a mechanical
separator was used. The separator is attached to penultimate conveyor and has two main functions,
a clearance to let the 7.5 cm soil to pass through and, a belt to sweep the top layer (2.5 cm) to the
sides. This soil falls down in the hopper of the exit conveyor. Steady state is reached after four
cycles on the conveyor (10 cm soil). In the steady state, the soil before the beam is 75 % treated
while the soil after the beam is 100 % treated. The figures shown below above the function of the
separator.

13

4.1.3

Shielding

The safety of the workers near the facility was a major criterion for this design. To meet this
objective while maintaining the portability of the entire setup meant designing effective shielding
walls that are not massive to transport in a truck, but which still allowed fast installation after
reaching the site. Transporting the walls contradicts the very idea of the portability, as the shielding
walls are very heavy. Usage of materials like Earth or Water which are available on-site is practical
for our purpose.
Earth has many admirable qualities as a shielding material. The principal constituent of dry
earth is silicon dioxide (SiO2 ) making it an effective shielding material for photons. Earth varies in
density, depending upon the soil type, water content, and the degree of compaction from 1.7 g/cm3
to as high as 2.2 g/cm3 . Any other material is not available on site and needs to be transported.
Concrete can still be used to build dense and compact shielding walls, but, disposal of concrete
would be a problem. So, earth was chosen as the shielding material.

Figure 4.6: Shielding thickness h(m) vs Beam energy (MeV )

14

Table 4.2: Constants to calculate the necessary shielding with beam energy
Beam Energy (MeV)

0.5
1
3
5
10

Constant to calculate
required
shielding
a kg/m2
1700
2400
4150
5400
7600

Shielding thickness, h, in line with the beam ( = 0 90o ) is given as h = a/ and for
reflected radiation ( = 90o 180o ) as h = a/2, where is the shielding material density and
factor, a, is given in the Table 4.2 for various beam energies. The Bremsstrahlung radiation is
emitted when electrons are decelerated when they are fired at the target. When the energy of the
electrons is in the order of MeV or more, the radiation is in the x-ray region of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Figure 4.6 shown below plots the values in the Table 4.2 to get the shielding thickness
required vs. beam energy variation for soil of density 2000kg/m3 . At 10 MeV, it can be observed
that a shielding thickness of 3.5 m is required for inline radiation while only 1.75m is required for
reflected radiations.
One challenge that needs to be addressed is the building of the shielding walls using the soil.
Sheet-metals strengthened with the weldment channels were designed as walls, to contain the soil.
To ensure the static stability of the walls while loading and unloading of the soil, a robust support
was provided in the form of a stand. This stand can be opened and closed about a hinge bracket
attached to the back of the wall. Figure 4.7 shows a perspective view of the walls standing on the
ground.

15

Figure 4.7: 3D model showing the sheet-metal walls along with their supports-1) Steel Sheet
Metal 2) Structural support 3) Stands 4) Ground

4.1.4

Miscellaneous Components

The main components of the design were discussed in the previous sections of this chapter. Hydraulic
jacks are needed to lift the 11 ton accelerator to a desired height. The jacks have a capacity of 18
tons and operate synchronously with the help of the control system that comes pre-installed from
the provider, Interstate Mobile Column Lifting Systems[7]. Electric power on site is provided by
a diesel generator of capacity 500 kW [8] owing to the 60% efficiency of the accelerator[5]. The
generator is produced by Generac, a leader in generator systems for home and industry; it can be
carried on a separate trailer to the site. The below figures show the hydraulic jacks and generators
used in the design.
The materials of the every component used were chosen to be ASTM 36 steel. The conveyor
belts are made of hinged steel links. Steel provides the best structural strength among the available
materials and is the most common material used for designing structures. An oversized trailer bed

16

Figure 4.8: 3D view of hydraulic jacks designed in SolidWorks and Generator from Generac
was designed using I-beams to carry the accelerator. Stress analysis of the bed is shown in the next
section (4.2).
Suction fan was installed to extract the vapors generated during the process. To contain and
extract the gases from the irradiated soil, a chamber was designed. It is composed of a weldment
frame and sheet metals as shown in Figure 4.9. Volume flowrate of gases was calculated assuming
1) the vapors are 1% by mass flowrate of the soil being treated 2) ideal gas assumption at 500o C

Figure 4.9: 3D view of the chamber and, Transparent view of the chamber showing the weldment
frame, suction fan and the scan horn

17

(here, acetylene was assumed as the vapor, any other gas composition can be assumed if the actual
gases produced is known). To extract these vapors, a suction fan of capacity 500 m3 /hr was used
[10].

4.2

Structural Analysis (FEA)

Stress-strain analysis must be done on any designed parts to validate the model. It helps in ensuring
the safety of the facility and also a reduction in the weight of material by designing the components
to exact safety requirements. Stress-strain analysis prevents the overdesign (more weight than
required) or under design (unsafe and prone to failure) of the parts. The main component that was
designed in SolidWorks was the shielding walls to contain the soil. Since they need to hold tons
of soil in between them, they need to be sufficiently strong. The designing of the walls was done
iteratively, strengthening the structure by adding members until the desirable factor of safety was
achieved.
In order to perform the analysis on the walls, a lateral active earth pressure was assumed as
the wall is leaning away from the soil [9]. Active earth pressure with an assumed friction angle
of 30o [9] is 1/3rd of the vertical pressure acting on the soil at that level. SolidWorks Simulation
package was used, and this pressure was applied on the walls laterally. After applying default mesh
settings and required fixtures to hold the wall, stress plot as shown in the Figure 4.10 was obtained.
The highest amount of stresses (shown in green color) are observed near the hinges on the C-beams
and at the bottom of the I-beams. This is expected as the largest amount of load is supported by
the hinges and the lower part of the wall. The figure shows the structural elements attached a thin
wall of thickness 1/4 inch. The dimensions of the wall are 20 ft by 10 ft and weighs two tons. The
minimum FOS 3 is 0.90. An Iso clipping plot in the Figure 4.11 shows the region with Factor of
3 Factor

of Safety

18

Safety less than 1.5. It is a very small region with high stress concentrations and can be ignored
according to the St. Venants Principle.

Figure 4.10: Von-Mises stresses for the sheet-metal wall

Figure 4.11: Iso clipping plot of FOS for the sheet-metal wall

19

Other component that needs validation is the custom trailer bed we designed. The stress plot
4.12 and iso plot 4.13 from SolidWorks are shown below. The Iso clipping plot gives more insight
into the weak regions. The minimum FOS is 1.30 and the region with FOS < 4 is very small and
occurs at the end of the main frame beams. This shows that the structure is strong enough to hold
the accelerator under static loads. However, this may not be true for the dynamic loads. A much
stronger structure with thicker beams would be needed for dynamic loads to maintain a good FOS.

20

Figure 4.12: Von-Mises stresses for the trailer bed

Figure 4.13: Iso clipping plot of FOS for the trailer

21

5. Future Work
The facility layout needs more work and analysis for an accurate and comprehensive design. The
project requires expertise from Nuclear, Civil and Electrical engineers to enhance the design and
functionality of the facility. The current design is not production ready and needs contribution from
the engineers in the above-mentioned disciplines to enhance the design and make it production
ready. The byproducts of the process oil vapors need to be collected, and condensed. A suction
fan needs to be installed without compromising the shielding safety of the facility.
One area of that needs more work is the shielding. It is the most important aspect of the
design as it ensures the safety of the workers from radiation. The shielding in the current facility
was designed based on rough empirical parameters. The shielding thickness is approximately
estimated using those parameters. For accurate design of shielding labyrinth, effective simulations
like MCNP1 need to be used. The current design requires the installation of the sheet metal walls
first and then filling the space between them with earth. Improvement is required in the design of
the sheet metal walls to facilitate a simpler yet robust assembly.
Another area that needs focus is the maintenance of the facility. Any area prone to failure
must be easily accessible to the operation personnel so that the repair time is less. This area needs
to be considered in the future design. The repair of any component should not require the removal
of shielding walls or disturb any structures as it would result in a long downtime of the facility.
1 Monte

Carlo N-Particle Transport Code

22

Future work is also needed in the integration of the different components of the facility like
conveying speed, dose rate, beam power and the electric generator. There are several variables that
come into the picture and integrating all these variables with the help of control systems would
prevent the requirement for manual calculations. It would save a lot of time and prevent any
human error when a different type and different quantity of soil needs to be treated.

23

6. Conclusions
In this report, a design for a portable soil irradiation facility has been presented. The key components
of the design are the source, conveyors, and the radiation shielding. The entire facility can be
transported to the desired location on two trailers and be set up within three days. The facility was
designed for a maximum throughput rate of 50 tons/day with a 24 hr continuous operation at a
power input of 245 kW. A high energy accelerator, Rhodotron TT300 was selected mainly to attain
a near uniform dose-rate in the soil and higher depth of penetration. The soil will pass under the
beam via a conveyor belt made of steel. Steel was selected for the conveyor belt since it is highly
radiation resistant and can carry high temperature soils. Safety towards radiation was ensured
with the help of shielding walls of appropriate thickness made by sandwiching soil between sheet
metal walls. These walls will attenuate the Bremsstrahlung radiation produced from the electron
collisions and their deceleration in the soil. Owing to the 60% efficiency of the accelerator, the
facility will be powered by a generator (500 kW) contained on a trailer [5]. An oversized trailer
was designed to transport the accelerator due to its large dimensions (3m in diameter). Such a
trailer would need an Oversize Trucking Permit from the government. A portable facility could
travel to any location and be set up easily and removes the requirement for the transport of the
soil to a fixed facility and re transport of it back to the site for disposal. Though the concept
of portability is not new in electron beam irradiation systems, there is no implemented existing
facility working currently.

24

A. Appendix
The below table shows the temperature rise in the materials with the energy dose. Though metals
undergo a high temperature change than polymers, they have higher melting point and are strong,
hence were chosen as materials.

Figure A.1: Temperature Rise of Materials Due to Irradiation[2]

The below figure shows the initial idea of modular shielding walls shown in the book by
National Council of Radiation and Protection [3]. But this idea was dropped as the number of
containers needed to transport were very high.

25

26

Bibliography

A.1

Works Cited

[1] National Center for Electron Beam Research; http://ebeam.tamu.edu/


[2] Industrial Radiation Processing with Electron Beams and X-Rays. International Atomic
Energy Agency. Vienna, Austria; 2011. p. 33. www.iaea.org.
[3] NCRP Report No.144, Radiation Protection for Particle Accelerator Facilities, National
Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements; 2005. p. 163.
[4] Datasheet- Rhodotron TT200-300-400;

http://www.iba-industrial.com/sites/

default/files/ressources/Datasheet%20%20TT200-300-400.pdf
[5] Rhodotron E-beam Accelerator; http://www.iba-industrial.com/sites/default/
files/ressources/Brochure%20Rhodotron%20-August%202010_0.pdf
[6] Miniveyor: Portable Conveyor Systems; http://www.miniveyor.com/miniveyor.html
[7] Mobile Column Lifting Systems: Interstate Lift and Equipment Company; http://www.
interstatelift.com/mobile_column_lifting_systems.html
[8] Generac Standby Generators; http://www.generac.com/all-products/generators/
business-standby-generators/diesel-generators/500kw
27

[9] A presentation on Lateral Earth Pressure; http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~lanbo/


CE240LectW113lateralpressure1.pdf
[10] High

Temperature

Exhaust

Fan;

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/

high-temperature-exhaust-fan_716950980.html

A.2

Works Consulted

1. International Atomic Energy Agency. Radiation safety of Gamma and Electron Irradiation
Facilities.Safety Series. No 107. 1992

2. IAEA Bulletin Vol.20, No.1; http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull201/20105706466.p


3. US Department of Transportation, Dockets and Regulations; http://www.dot.gov/regulations.
html
4. United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Fact Sheet on commercial Irradiators; http:
//www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/factsheets/commercial-irradiators.
html

28

You might also like