Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory INEEL Home (http://www.inel.gov) INEEL Newsdesk Home (http://newsdesk.inel.gov) Back

DOE News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 1, 2001

NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS:
INEEL, Kathy Gatens, 208-526-1058, kzc@inel.gov
ISU, Glenn Alford, 208-282-3517, alfoglen@isu.edu

Idaho Accelerator Center receives grant from Idaho Board of Education

A grant from the Idaho Board of Education will allow the Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC) to develop advanced radiation science applications ranging from detecting smuggled nuclear material to improving cancer treatment and medical imaging.

With a three-year, $1 million grant from the Higher Education Research Council, Idaho State University's Idaho Accelerator Center will also support the industrial community with material failure analysis, and the agricultural community with testing a non-chemical pesticide.
 "The Accelerator Center has two primary roles - as a multi-disciplinary research center and as an education institution, " director Frank Harmon said. "This grant allows us to expand both roles and firmly establish the Center as a premier facility for accelerator applications and radiation science."

The grant will support the development of these applications through the hiring of additional full-time research faculty and postdoctoral fellows, establishing student research assistantships, and completing capital investments for laboratory expansions.

The IAC, located in Pocatello, Idaho has operated since 1994 in partnership with the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy. The projects developed with this funding expand commercial applications of accelerator research while continuing to support DOE environmental and national security needs.

The grant will allow improvements to accelerator-based analytical capabilities at the IAC, including photon activation and proton-microbeam analyses. Photon activation uses energetic photons to induce gamma-ray spectra to identify unknown elements in a sample. Like other accelerator applications, this process offers a much less expensive and more benign activating source than nuclear reactor-based systems. Photon activation analysis provides mining companies a low-cost method to identify the composition and richness of an ore. The method can also analyze industrial emissions to determine content and potential impacts to the environment.

The proton microbeam makes it possible to analyze samples at the micron level. The microbeam scans repeatedly across an object, creating a 'map' of the surface's elemental composition. This technology has immediate applications in biology, geology, engineering, chemistry, and physics in addition to art and anthropology where artifacts can be analyzed without damaging or otherwise touching them.

The grant will also support the development of a novel electron/laser interaction photon source. The controlled interaction of a laser beam with a very short, intense electron beam produces scattered photons with a pre-defined energy and well defined scattering direction. Currently, large and costly synchrotrons produce these specialized photons, used for semi-conductor manufacturing, and unique image characterization of molecules and crystalline material. The IAC may offer an economically competitive source.

IAC researchers will also conduct studies of radiation-sensitivity of bacteria and viruses in accelerator-based sterilization processes such as for dental equipment and waste streams, and for non-chemical control of agricultural pests using ionizing radiation that leaves no residual toxins and has no long-term environmental effects.

"The Idaho Accelerator Center is clearly poised to become a major, world-class research center," said James Jones, INEEL nuclear scientist and associate director of the center. "We have outstanding facilities and equipment of unusual diversity and scope. The IAC is already enhancing Idaho's national and regional reputation for radiation science research."

The INEEL is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy's missions in environment, energy, science and national security. The INEEL is operated for the DOE by Bechtel BWXT Idaho LLC.

--INEEL--

Technical contacts:  
INEEL, James Jones, 208-526-1730
ISU, Frank Harmon, 208-282-5877

01-76

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory INEEL Home (http://www.inel.gov) INEEL Newsdesk Home (http://newsdesk.inel.gov) Back