The ADEX system has been implemented in order to control the ion source of the MYRRHA accelerator currently being built at the “Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et Cosmologie” in Grenoble (France). MYRRHA will be the first industrial scale reactor for nuclear waste transmutation and is expected to start operating before 2030 in the city of MOL (Belgium).
In the ion source, a flow of hydrogen gas is subjected to a powerful electrical field which ionizes the gas and absorbs its electrons generating a proton beam. The ADEX system controls the proton beam current measured after the ion source using a “Faraday Cup” acting on the power supplied to the radio frequency amplifier which generates the electrical field.
To carry out this implementation, a control platform has been developed on a CompactRIO 9035 of National Instruments which enables the execution in real time of control strategies in conjunction with ADEX controllers. This platform enables the execution of controllers with control periods of less than 250 us and represents an ideal environment for future implementation of ADEX technology to other accelerator processes.