Advanced Medical Accelerator Design

This report describes the design of an advanced medical facility dedicated to charged particle radiotherapy and other biomedical applications of relativistic heavy ions. Project status is reviewed and some technical aspects discussed. Clinical standards of reliability are regarded as essential features of this facility. Particular emphasis is therefore placed on the control system and on the use of technology which will maximize operational efficiency. The accelerator will produce a variety of heavy ion beams from helium to argon with intensities sufficient to provide delivered dose rates of several hundred rad/minute over large, uniform fields. The technical components consist of a linac injector with multiple PIG ion sources, a synchrotron and a versatile beam delivery system. An overview is given of both design philosophy and selected accelerator subsystems. Finally, a plan of the facility is described.