Operating characteristics of a high current electro-static accelerator for a contraband detection system

We describe the operation of a tandem accelerator based Contraband Detection System (CDS) built jointly by Advanced Energy Systems (AES) and TRIUMF, which employs the Nuclear Resonance Absorption (NRA) technique for detecting the attenuation of 9.17 MeV gamma rays by /sup 14/N. A key technology of the CDS device is a high current tandem accelerator designed to provide a 1.76 MeV, 10 mA proton beam to a high power thin film /sup 13/C target. We describe the operation of the accelerator and present data on the measured output current, emittance, and energy spread using the integrated /sup 13/C target yield. This system has been used to generate images of explosive simulants which can be separated from non-nitrogenous background.