Powering Magnets in Linear Accelerator for Myrrha

At JEMA, we want to maintain our position at the cutting edge of innovation. One way to do it is to regularly work with universities and research centers. This allows us to exchange on a technical and know-how level and to improve our skills. In this perspective, we are taking part in the Myrrha project.

Myrrha is a large-scale Accelerator Driven System (ADS) project at power levels scalable to industrial systems, appointed by the European Commission as one of the priority high technology projects. It is a nuclear reactor driven by a high-power linear accelerator, installed in SCK-CEN premises in Mol, Belgium. It paves the way to new applications such as nuclear waste management with the aim of reducing the waste radioactivity decay time from millions to several hundreds of years, the development of new therapies to fight cancer, among others.

Having been chosen for the LEBT (first step of the project before the injector and RFQ) few years ago, JEMA is proud to be part of this world class project in providing highly stable and performant DC power supply for the 30m long injectors of 176.1 MHz (red rectangle here under).

More about Myrrha

… are to provide a high-quality product and service as well as reliable, innovative, highly stable, high performance DC power supply systems. More concretely, we have to power and control 21 quadrupole magnets for the injectors (T1-D1 to D8 on here-under illustration) as well as steerers.

To achieve this, a close collaboration to cope with the Myrrha team’s expectations is key. Reliability is also mandatory as the whole Myrrha system is funded on extremely low shortage occurrences.Moreover, the bunch of 21 magnets forming the injector requires innovative technology as the beam line needs to be always under control with high stability current throughout days and years. Therefore, the most advanced technologies are engaged to get the expected stability to control the physical behavior of the accelerator beam. Working 24/7, a deep attention is devoted to energy consumption and efficiency.

All in all, high performance is required in terms of stability, efficiency, dynamic response, compacity and maintenance.

We provided MOSAIC, one coherent system of 2 cabinets that powers and controls the 21 quadrupole magnets of the injector. This solution is made of 13 power modules and one controller that drives the 21 independent DC outputs feeding the magnets. We have also selected a certified supplier for the magnets, Scanditronix as partner in this project.

How does it work?

From a centralized network of 3x400W, 13 standard modules (CIME) are smartly combined to provide 21 magnet DC outputs The complete system is air and water cooled.

Cabinets include 4 independent and isolated converters feeding 21 DC outputs, with different voltage and current values of high stability. Modules can be swapped within 5 minutes (pluggable electrical and water connections), as the output DC connections remains physically the same in the cabinet.

The 21 outputs are all controlled simultaneously by one centralized controller. This controller can be accessed locally by a dedicated and customized HMI screen and communicates by specific customer protocol and TCP/IP.

• Highly customizable: our system is versatile and can be customized to each system with standard swappable modules and controller, leading to rationalization of off-the-shelf equipment for shorter delivery time and extremely easy maintenance
• High stability: in order to provide a very precise trajectory of the particles, quadrupole and steerer magnets need high stability. This can be achieved thanks to the high stability of our power
• Field experience: since many years, MOSAIC systems are installed worldwide mostly, but not limited to, beam line applications
• Reduced footprint: the high-power density of our solution helps our customer save space within his building.