TEHRAN -- The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has unveiled a first home-made electrostatic particle accelerator that could help boost manufacturing procedures in the country.
AEOI chief Muhammad Eslami and Iran’s minister of higher education Mohammad Ali Zolfigol attended a ceremony here to unveil the Dynamitron-type accelerator which has been developed and funded by Iran’s Nuclear Science and Technology Research Institute (NSTRI).
No more details or images were available from the machine which authorities said will be mainly used for industrial irradiation applications in Iran.
NSTRI’s director Amir Hussein Feqhi said earlier this week that the institute had supplied one accelerator to a laboratory in the University of Shahid Beheshti in Tehran, adding that two more machines will be delivered to Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology and to Yazd University in central Iran.
Feqhi said the accelerator was a clear example of using academic research to promote industrial advancement in Iran.
A report by the official IRNA news agency said the particle accelerator unveiled on Saturday will be used for irradiation purposes in food industries, cable and wire manufacturing, tire industries, sewage treatment and in sterilization of medical devices.
It said the machine will also be highly useful in treating cancer patients by making use of the device in boron neutron capture therapy technique.