Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory - Linear Accelerator: 1962-1983

Linear Accelerator: 1962-1983

The construction of the Linear Accelerator (LINAC) was announced in September 1961, and was portrayed as the next logical step on the University's research path. The 80-foot electron accelerator tube was to create energy six times that of the betatron. The cost of the $1,750,000 facility was split between NRC and the University, with the NRC meeting the cost of the equipment and the University assuming the costs of the new building required to house the machine.

Construction officially began on May 10, 1962, when Sir John Cockcroft, Nobel laureate in Physics, ceremonially turned the first sod. The Laboratory officially opened in early November 1964 with 75 visiting scientists from around the world in attendance, presenting papers and giving lectures over a period of several days, and hundreds of people showed up for the public open house. The first experiment was performed by a group from MIT in 1965.

The accelerator was designed and constructed by Varian Associates. It was a four-section 140 MeV machine operating, with the first section designed for higher current (and thus lower energy) for radiation chemistry. A 270" magnetic system at the end of the first section could divert the electron beam for such research. For radiation protection purposes the accelerator and research facilities were housed in an underground building with 10 feet of compacted gravel above it and considerably thicker shielding over the regions where the full beam intensity was diverted into the experimental areas. Part of the anciliary equipment included a magnetic spectrometer mounted on a rotating platform, modified from a naval gunmount supplied by the US Office of Naval Research.

The initial experimental program included inelastic electron scattering, photodisintegration, radiation chemistry, biophysics and radiation physics. During the 1970s SAL regularly published important nuclear physics results, and the LINAC was upgraded to 220 MeV in 1975, and 300 MeV in 1980.