Boffins’ breakthrough at 99.9% light speed

Dec 24 2008 by Adrian Short, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

A PARTICLE accelerator at Daresbury Laboratory has achieved a European breakthrough by producing an 11m-volt electron stream with only a fraction of the energy required by conventional means.

The Daresbury-based ALICE Superconducting Linear Accelerator boosted the particle beam to 99.9% of the speed of light and for the first time achieved a “full circuit” at 2am on December 13.

It is the first accelerator in Europe which can recapture energy from the initial beam – and it could lead to accelerators which operate at huge energy levels or at current energy levels for a fraction of the cost.

Susan Smith, head of the accelerator physics group at STFC Daresbury Laboratory, said: “The ALICE team have been working tremendously hard to demonstrate energy recovery and it felt like Christmas had come early.

“We have proven energy recovery, but not yet quantified it. Once fully commissioned, ALICE will accelerate to 35m volts, electrons will be sent round the accelerator at 99.99% of the speed of light and 99.9% of the power at the final accelerator stage will be recovered.

“This would make the power sources for the acceleration drastically smaller and cheaper and therefore economically viable.”

Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of STFC, said: “This is an impressive and significant step forward for ALICE.

“In itself, the concept of energy recovery is not new, but the application of this technique in combination with advanced accelerator technologies, such as super-conducting cavities, has exciting prospects for the future of next generation light sources and particle colliders.”