  The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a new 1000-tonne D2O Cerenkov solar
neutrino detector. A high energy gamma-ray source is needed to calibrate SNO
beyond the 8B solar neutrino endpoint of 15 MeV. This paper describes the
design and construction of a source that generates 19.8-MeV gamma rays using
the 3H(p,gamma)4He reaction (``pt''), and demonstrates that the source meets
all the physical, operational and lifetime requirements for calibrating SNO. An
ion source was built into this unit to generate and to accelerate protons up to
30 keV, and a high purity scandium tritide target with a scandium-tritium
atomic ratio of 1:2.0+/-0.2 was included. This pt source is the first
self-contained, compact, and portable high energy gamma-ray source (E>10 MeV).
