IAEA Second International Conference on Accelerators for Research and Innovation: iia Report

Thomas Kroc represented the iia at the Second International Conference on Accelerators for Research and Innovation at the IAEA in Vienna, June 22-26, 2026. His attendance was funded by the US DOE Office of Radiological Security (ORS) to promote the iia’s publications Low, Medium Energy Electron Beams & X-rays: A Guide to the Technology Fundamentals and Applications and Roadmap to an Electron Beam or X-ray Center for Industrial Applications which themselves were funded by ORS.

The scope of the conference was wide ranging, from radiation processing, to SIT to cancer therapy using large ion beam facilities, to discovery science machines at various national laboratories.

In addition to presenting the two documents, Thomas was a member on a plenary panel on Emerging Technologies and presented on Important and Beneficial Developments in the Application of Accelerator Technology at a Side Event Industry Advancements and Today’s Capabilities in Electron Beam Technologies. The Side Event stimulated new thoughts on how to expand the use of medium energy applications.

Members of the iia in attendance and with exhibition booths:

• Wuxi El Pont
• Mevex
• Aerial
• CGN Dasheng
• National Center for Electron Beam Research
• Rapiscan

Other iia members in attendance:

• PNNL
• IBA
• ThreeRays
• FNAL

An interesting aspect of the conference was to see radiation processing being performed in regions that are not traditionally covered by a majority of our memebers, but show interest and execution in the field such as Malaysia, Philipines, Croatia, and Indonesia. Also of interest are applications beyond the traditional ones such as plastic upcycling and PFAS destruction. These applications illustrate potential new business opportunites as they scale to industrial levels.