Awards
Adelphi Technology is proud to have won 3 R&D 100 Awards
2015 R&D 100 Award: A Hybrid Neutron Generator
“Although compact fusion generators have been around since the 1950s, their uses have been restricted to a limited number of applications, mainly due to their low yield, high neutron energies (2.5 MeV) and short product lifetimes. Adelphi Technology Inc.’s Model DD110M Hybrid Neutron Generator marries the usually low-yield DD fusion reaction generator to a highly efficient ECR ion source (usually reserved for high-current LINAC-based sources) and an integrated target and moderator that efficiently moderates the fast 2.5 MeV neutrons to thermal energies (less than 0.25 eV) in a very small volume, resulting in a high thermal flux. The moderator can be switched out and fast neutron emitted, giving the hybrid generator the capability of emitting either thermal of fast neutrons. In response, the relatively inexpensive, compact neutron generator, married to an optimally designed moderator, becomes valuable in a host of new applications using high-flux thermal neutrons and high-yield fast neutrons.”
2013 R&D 100 Award: High Flux Fast Neutron Source, Model DD-109X
Adelphi Technology Inc. and its collaborator, the University of Florida, have received the 2013 R&D 100 award for their development of a “High Flux Fast Neutron Source, Model DD-109X.” This is the second R&D100 award for Adelphi Technology (see last year’s award). The R&D 100 Awards have a 51 year history of recognizing excellence in innovation, earning the name: the “Oscars of Innovation”. According to R&D, “The awards not only recognize the efforts of the development team and partners. The award provides a mark of excellence known to industry, government, and consumers.” Many winners from halogen lamps (1974) to HDTV (1998) have demonstrated the importance of this award. “More recent winners include next-generation magnetic resonance imaging machines, laser-based metal-forming tools, and the building blocks for fusion experiments.”
The model DD109X neutron source produces high fluxes of fast neutrons large enough to analyze fissile and high density materials. This increases the reaction rate in the sample for diagnosis of content. Such active analysis is particularly useful for determining the material components of nuclear materials. Fissile materials such as uranium can be placed in a sample chamber located next to the neutron source. The sample is then removed and analyzed for content. Ordinarily one would have to use a reactor or a spallation neutron source to get comparable fluxes. Like all Adelphi DD100 series generators, the deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction is used to produce high fluxes of fast neutrons (2.5 MeV) that are very similar to the average energy of 2 MeV neutrons produced in reactors. The close position of the emitting target to the sample increases the flux of fast neutron delivered, activating the sample for identification.
2012 R&D 100 Award: High Output Neutron Generators, DD-100 Series
Adelphi Technology Inc. and its collaborator, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), have received the 2012 R&D 100 award for their development of “High Output Neutron Generators, DD100 Series.” The DD100 series includes the models DD-108 and DD-109. Called the “Oscars of Innovation”, the R&D 100 Awards recognize and celebrate the top 100 technology products of the year. This is R&D magazine’s 50th year giving these awards. According to the magazine, these awards “have included sophisticated testing equipment, innovative new materials, chemistry breakthroughs, biomedical products, consumer items, and high-energy physics. The R&D 100 Awards span industry, academia, and government-sponsored research.”
The DD100 series of neutron generators make excellent laboratory sources. They are unique in that they produce high neutron yields using the safer DD fusion reaction. The Adelphi generator is easily repairable, uses no radioactive tritium and has a much longer lifetime. The generator uses an open vacuum system with non-radioactive deuterium flowing through it. The Adelphi DD fusion reaction neutron generators also offer large neutron yields that are comparable or even larger than those using radioactive tritium and the DT fusion reaction. The new Adelphi generator uses a new highly efficient microwave-driven ion source that produces much higher average currents than those produced in competitors’ sources. Even though the DT reaction is more efficient than the DD reaction, the microwave ion source permits the Adelphi generator to have comparable neutron yields.