Design and commissioning of an e-beam irradiation beamline at the Upgraded Injector Test Facility at Jefferson Lab

The Upgraded Injector Test Facility (UITF) at Jefferson Lab is a continuous-wave superconducting linear accelerator capable of providing an electron beam with energy up to 10 MeV. A beamline for electron-beam irradiation has been designed, installed and successfully commissioned at this facility, aimed at the degradation study of 1,4-dioxane and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater treatment. A solenoid with a peak axial magnetic field of up to 0.28 T and a set of raster coils were used to obtain a Gaussian beam profile with a transverse standard deviation of ∼15.0 mm at the target location. Monte-Carlo simulations using FLUKA were carried out to calculate the total absorbed dose and the dose distribution in the sample volume inside the target cell. The simulations were benchmarked experimentally by dosimetry mapping using opti-chromic dosimeters. The results of the irradiation experiments showed a ∼95% reduction of 1,4-dioxane in ultra-pure water for a dose of 1 kGy, demonstrating the potential of electron-beam irradiation towards addressing growing challenges in environmental remediation.