The CONFORM project
Roger Barlow
BASROC launch
3rd May 2007
Accelerator Technology
Accelerators are everywhere. Many different uses. Many
different communities.
NS-FFAG advantages
• Cheap, simple DC magnets.
• Compact design
• High repetition rate and duty cycle
• Rapid acceleration
• High acceptance
• Permanent magnets (?)
• Continuous operation (?)
‘Cyclotron currents at Synchrotron energies’
Just one thing
No-one knows
whether it works
Can resonances be
controlled/avoided?
CONFORM
Construction of a Nonscaling FFAG for
Oncology, Research and Medicine
Build EMMA: 20 MeV electron prototype to
demonstrate principle
Design PAMELA: clinical machine for
hadron therapy
Investigate other applications
The Bid
Bid to Basic Technology fund
Successful and fully funded £6.9M awarded
£5.5M to build EMMA
Posts to design PAMELA
Posts to identify and develop applications
Administrator
Start 1st April (?)2007 for 3½ years
EMMA
Design already complete last year
Since then: magnets realigned, magnet shims added, fewer
RF cavities
Magnet
prototypes
now ordered
(almost?)
Injection and
extraction
seem possible
EMMA
• Team in place
• Strong co-operation
from Daresbury
• Regular meetings run
by Rob and Neil
• Design still changing
• Hard to establish
baseline
• Reliance on outside
expertise
• Will it work?
PAMELA
Long wish-list
Builders and
users
(medical
community) in
discussions
about how to
achieve all of
these
Prove proton NSFFAG works
Provide ~40 MeV protons for
cell studies
Provide ~300 MeV protons for
therapy
Provide ~40 MeV/N He and C
for cell studies
Provide ~450 MeV/N He and
C for therapy
PAMELA
Multi-stage design
(2+1 rings, or ovals)
Injector and injection
energy not clear:
18 MeV Cyclotron off
the shelf – but only for
protons
4 MeV RFQ neater – but
harder
p
(MeV/c)
87
E
(MeV)
4
184
18
274
40
370
70
750
300
Applications
Identified
• Hadron Therapy: parameters
for PAMELA
• Cell irradiation studies
• Muon sources
• Neutron sources
• Neutrino factory
• ADSR thorium reactors
Others?
}Surrey
}Leeds
RAL
Manchester
3 years time
• Working machine
• Full design for PAMELA that we can take
to MRC/NHS
• Portfolio of other NS-FFAG designs for
different communities of accelerator users