Overview and Status of the MedAustron Ion Therapy Center Accelerator

Abstract

The synchrotron-based MedAustron accelerator in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, has seen the first clinical beam and has been certified as a medical accelerator in December 2016. This represented a major milestone for the facility whose original design originated more than a decade ago and construction started four years ago. The accelerator is designed to deliver clinical proton beams 60-253 MeV and carbon ions 120-400 MeV/u to three ion therapy irradiation rooms (IRs), including a room with a proton Gantry. Beams up to 800 MeV will be provided to a fourth room dedicated to non-clinical research. Presently, proton beams are delivered to the horizontal beam lines of three irradiation rooms. In parallel, commissioning of the accelerator with Carbon ions and the installation of the Gantry beam line are ongoing. At MedAustron, a third-order resonance extraction method is used to extract particles from the synchrotron in a slow controlled process over a spill time of 0.1-10 seconds to facilitate the measurement and control of the delivered radiation dose during clinical treatments. The main characteristics of the accelerator and the results obtained during the commissioning are presented