Particle accelerators

Tender description

The UoB team who have put the EPSRC application together are experts in accelerator technologies and have a good knowledge of the sector, including the manufacturers. The bid which was submitted to EPSRC was designed around the highest performing accelerator available in order to maximise the potential of the facility and the value for money to the funder; EPSRC. The down-selection resulted in a design from the US company Neutron Therapeutics, which had not only designed, constructed and sold the high current accelerator (highest available at the energy required) but also the target that converts the protons in the beam into neutrons. Indeed the target is one of the most challenging components and the company have demonstrated success here. No other company were at a stage of development, or even close to the stage of development, to be able to offer a competitive design. The government department BEIS have been running a competition to develop a range of new research facilities to support the development of nuclear energy in the UK. This is a ~85 000 000 GBP programme. The funding is being managed by the EPSRC who has run a competitive process to select bids for new research facilities, which are to support a national user community. The UoB submitted an application to build a facility which will produce neutrons using a particle accelerator. This application involved a bid for the funding for the accelerator and the building to house the accelerator. The bid has been successful and the award would be 8 700 000 GBP, plus contributions from industrial/national partners including Rolls-Royce and the National Physical Laboratory. The accelerator: The development of the facility requires a state-of-the-art accelerator in order to reach the highest levels of neutron production possible. The UoB team who have put the EPSRC application together are experts in accelerator technologies and have a good knowledge of the sector, including the manufacturers. The bid which was submitted to EPSRC was designed around the highest performing accelerator available in order to maximise the potential of the facility and the value for money to the funder; EPSRC. The down-selection resulted in a design from the US company neutron therapeutics, which had not only designed, constructed and sold the high current accelerator (highest available at the energy required) but also the target that converts the protons in the beam into neutrons. Indeed the target is one of the most challenging components and the company have demonstrated success here. No other company were at a stage of development, or even close to the stage of development, to be able to offer a competitive design. The UoB team have talked to a number of accelerator vendors in the development of the application and are confident that there is no competing design in the cost bracket required. The EPSRC had set a guide price for the new facility of ~6 000 000 GBP. The bid was submitted with a costing which exceeded this by ~2 500 000 GBP. This is then at the extreme of affordability for the call. There are much bigger and much more expensive accelerators which may be able to compete in terms of neutron generation, but these are too big for the space available and too expensive to operate and are thus completely out of budget. The bid submitted to the EPSRC was on the basis of the development of a facility around the neutron therapeutics accelerator. It was evaluated by a panel of experts and they accepted the proposal on the basis of the proposed accelerator and that there was no other competitive option. On the basis of the following properties there is high confidence that there is no other accelerator manufacturer that can compete with the neutron therapeutics machine on: — cost, — intensity of the primary proton beam (30+ mA), — neutron conversion target (demonstrated to withstand several weeks of exposure), — demonstrated delivery of accelerator to existing customers, — footprint (size) of accelerator; compact design, — generation of low energy neutrons to avoid unnecessary activation and radiological hazard.