CNNC Develops Underground Device for World's Highest Beam Current

A high-current high-voltage accelerator independently developed by the China Institute of Atomic Energy, affiliated to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) passed a test operation on May 26.

The comprehensive performance of the facility has reached world leading levels for its kind and its core components were completely self-developed, confirming that CNNC has mastered the technology to manufacture high-voltage and high-current accelerators.

Located at the Jinping Underground Laboratory, the device will give the facility the strongest beam in the world when it goes into operation.

Jinping Underground Laboratory is currently the deepest lab in the world. It has an innate environment for research and study of many basic frontier issues such as dark matter detection, nuclear astrophysics and neutrino experiments.

It is expected to become a national basic research platform open to the world.

A large number of international and influential scientific research teams will be attracted to the Jinping Underground Laboratory to take advantage of the high-voltage and high-current accelerator.

The technology can also be used in many other fields including ion implantation, irradiation screening of nuclear materials and material modification and neutron production, which will contribute to new applications for nuclear technology and the development of related industries in China.

According to CNNC, during the development of the device, research teams had breakthroughs in many key technologies like production and acceleration of high-current ion production and non-interceptive beam intensity measurement.

The accelerator can produce various kinds of beams including proton and helium ions and is currently in stable and reliable operation.

To date, beams of proton and helium ions produced by the device have been used in the Earth's above-ground deep core astrophysics project, in which nearly 400 hours of experiments have been conducted.

The high-current high-voltage accelerator independently developed by the China Institute of Atomic Energy, affiliated to China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) passes the test operation on May 26. [Photo/China National Nuclear Corporation]

(Executive editor: Hao Wen)