New repetitive POS electron accelerator for open air electron beam injection

Repetitive plasma opening switch (RPOS) technology recently developed by Russia's Kurchatov Institute may be useful for a wide range of pulsed power parameters. The RS-20 concept represents 2-3 MV 10-100 kW range for radiation treatment; new repetitive POS generators were proposed for over 5 MV switching voltage and a 200-300 kW beam for high dose/dose rate production. Some technical approaches allow an increase in wall-plug beam efficiency of up to 50-70%. Other applications requiring high dose rate may use a relatively compact RPOS generator for electron beam irradiation at 500-800 keV. This compact concept may reach very high peak dose rate in e-mode to obtain a sterilization dose as a function of dose rate for radiation testing. An electron repetitive accelerator using RPOS technology has 8 kJ/shot energy capacity, 120 kA drive current amplitude, 500-800 kV and 100 ns diode pulse and 0.5-1 kJ/shot in e-beam. A specially designed window capable of operating in the multi-shot regime is also created. The generator is planned to have a 1-2 kGy/pulse and a peak dose rate of 2/spl times/10/sup 4/ MGy/s. The RPOS was made coaxial using a standard repetitive plasma gun technology with a central cathode and lifetime of more than 10/sup 6/ shots.