Reviews
איום גרעיני בהיבט מעשי (PDF 0.7 MB)
מצגת הרצאה בתכנית 'באים אל פרופסורים' בתאריך 21.06.2021
Assessing radiological and nuclear terror scenarios (PDF 0.7 MB)
Presentation at ICT's 9th International Conference on Counter-Terrorism,
Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, Israel.
September 7th-10th, 2009
The psychological consequences of CBRN always cause much more damage than the direct destruction of life and property (probably even orders of magnitude).
Therefore, preparing the public for any possible outcome of CBRN attack is an indispensable and vitally important element of any contingency plan.
Inter-disciplinary approach, collaboration between technical experts, social
scientists and decision-makers is crucial. Moreover, though CBRN terror is rare, yet industrial accidents leading to CBRN effects, occur on regular basis.
Dealing with both aspects is of similar importance; hence both security and safety measures share very much in common and should be dealt with in a holistic manner.
And it should be always remembered that civil defense is an important part of the deterrence.
Systems in Nuclear Environment (PDF 1.5 MB)
Presentation at the 2010 Convention of the Society of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Israel
Eilat, Israel, November 17-20, 2010
Changing Attitude to Radiation Hazards
and corresponding opportunities for accelerators' applications
Presented at the LINAC12 international conference,
Israel, September 9-14, 2012
High-energy LINACs unavoidably yield ionizing radiation. This fact makes them subject to strict regulations and considerably limits their possible applications. During the last two decades the attitude to ionizing radiation hazards seems to become more balanced, as opposed to "radiophobia" of the Cold-War era. Scientifically, the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) model of radiation damage is more frequently questioned. Moreover, the hypothesis of radiation hormesis - beneficial effect of low-dose radiation - is studied. While this scientific debate has not yet given fruit in terms of changes in radiation regulation policy, we may expect this to happen in the near to middle term. Namely, the ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) demand is anticipated to be substituted by some tolerance level, which in turn is anticipated to be very high according to the present standards. The presentation will review the present status of the radiation-hazard debate, and outline anticipated opportunities for LINAC applications, like compact designs and wider industrial outreach.
Free Electron Laser (FEL) technology (PDF 2.5 MB)
After about four decades of research and development, FEL technology is entering
the stage of commercialization. The review gives the basics of the technology, its
strong and weak points, present status and future trends.
High-power FELs - technology and future applications
Optics & Laser Technology Volume 46, March 2013, Pages 111-126
Accepted Author Manuscript (PDF 1.5 MB)
Free-electron laser (FEL) is an all-electric, high-power, high beam-quality source of
coherent radiation, tunable - unlike other laser sources - at any wavelength within
wide spectral region from hard X-rays to far-IR and beyond. After the initial push in
the framework of the "Star Wars" program, the FEL technology benefited from decades of
R&D and scientific applications. Currently, there are clear signs that the FEL
technology reached maturity, enabling real-world applications. E.g., successful and
unexpectedly smooth commissioning of the world-first X-ray FEL in 2010 increased in one
blow by more than an order of magnitude (40x) wavelength region available by FEL technology
and thus demonstrated that the theoretical predictions just keep true in real machines.
Experience of ordering turn-key electron beamlines from commercial companies is a
further demonstration of the FEL technology maturity. Moreover, successful commissioning
of the world-first multi-turn energy-recovery linac demonstrated feasibility of reducing FEL size, cost and power consumption by probably an order of magnitude in respect to previous configurations, opening way to applications, previously considered as non-feasible. This review takes engineer-oriented approach to discuss the FEL technology issues, keeping in mind applications in the fields of military and aerospace, next generation semiconductor lithography, photo-chemistry and isotope separation.
High-Power Beams in Defense and Security (PDF 1.3 MB)
Though offering enormous capabilities of speed-of-light fighting, "directed energy suffers from
a history of overly optimistic expectations" (U.S. Defense Science Board, 2007). In the presentation, an analysis of
goals and basic technologies - gas, solid-state and free-electron lasers - is
given. Available public-domain data on different high-power-laser
projects (including Soviet experience with CO2 lasers) is outlined,
mentioning ballistic and self-guiding missiles' counter-measures
(ABL, ATL, Medusa etc).
Achievements, advantages and drawbacks of each technology are briefly reviewed.
Terahertz Technology and Applications (PDF 0.9 MB)
"Terahertz has the opportunity to be a breakthrough technology that can be used
in several large markets within non-destructive testing, homeland security and
defense. It is entering the high reliability application and market development
phase, which will take some time to blossom."