The Role of Thermal Contact in High Power Targets
Meiring Nortier, Rishi Bhandia, Eva Birnbaum, Jason Cooley, Kevin John, Chris Martinez, Eric Olivas
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Oral Presentation
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Large scale isotope production quantities are often limited by the thermal performance of the production targets. At the 100 MeV Isotope Production Facility (IPF) at Los Alamos encapsulated targets are routinely subjected to beam currents of 250 µA, depositing several kilowatts of power in a single target. Recent upgrades allow beam currents up to 450 µA and beyond. Efforts to advance the frontiers of high power targetry are essential to meet anticipated demands for isotopes and to leverage future accelerator capabilities for large-scale isotope production.
Most target materials operate above their melting point, presenting no thermal contact barriers to efficient heat removal. However high-melting point materials such as thorium require thermal contact enhancement as part of the fabrication process to ensure integrity of their containment under high power beam conditions.
Thorium targets capable of withstanding ultra-high beam currents are presently under development. Following extensive thermal modelling, ways to advance target thermal performance are being investigated. A key focus area is enhanced thermal contact between the thorium target and its containment to ensure target performance both during first beam-on-target and during extended Ci-scale Ac-225 production runs.