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Accelerator Radiation Safety Newsletter |
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An Official Publication of the Health Physics Society's Accelerator Section Circulation: 466 |
Second Quarter 2010 / |
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FROM THE OFFICERS The President's
Message This is my final article as Accelerator Section president, since
the next issue of the newsletter will introduce the new board members who
took office at the section’s annual business meeting in Salt Lake City in
June. The past year has been productive, and we rightly have been praised as
one of the most active sections in the Health Physics Society. The
willingness of our members to serve the section explains our success. The President Elect’s
Message As noted by Linnea
in her “From the President” item above, members of the Section contributed to
a full Accelerator Special Session at the 55th Annual Meeting
of the HPS in Though it may seem strange, we are already in a position to call for papers for an Accelerator Session at the upcoming HPS Midyear meeting on Radiation Measurements in Charleston, South Carolina, to be held February 6-9, 2011. The Editor’s Message The 2010 Annual
Meeting of the HPS in Salt Lake City included many excellent presentations
related to accelerator radiation protection.
For those who did not attend the meeting, we have reprinted abstracts
from several of the papers presented.
Two of the abstracts deserve special mention as they earned student
awards for their presenters: |
Also of interest • Professional Development School OFFICERS
Mike Duran, Los Alamos National Lab Elsa Nimmo, University of California, Berkeley Reg Ronningen, Michigan State
University Jack Topper, Livermore National Lab |
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Abstracts from the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, Salt Lake City The
Estimates of Skin and BFO Dose Rates, Dose Equivalent Rates and Accumulated
Doses for human crews on the surface of the Moon from 15 January 2005 Solar
Energetic Particle Event using Earth-Moon-Mars Radiation Environment Module M.
PourArsalan*, The University of Tennessee ; L.W. Townsend,
The University of Tennessee; M.I. Hall, The University of
Tennessee; N.A. Schwadron, Boston University; K. Kozarev,
Boston University; M.A. Dayeh, Sothwest Research Institute;M.I.
Desai, Sothwest Research Institute Radiation
Dosimetry for 10 MeV Neutrons Using XRQA Radiochromic Film SL Brady*, Duke University ; R
Gunasingha, Duke University; TT Yoshizumi, Duke University; CR
Howel, Duke University; AS Crowell, Duke University; B Fallin, Duke
University; AP Tonchev, Duke University; MW Dewhirst, Duke
University The BNL National
Synchrotron Light Sources W. R. Casey*, NSLS-II BNL Radiation
Shielding And Radiation Protection Issues At The European Synchrotron
Radiation Facility P
Berkvens*, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility Evaluation of Open
Waveguide RF Hazard RT
May*, Jefferson Lab Radiation Safety
Aspects of the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC Sayed/H Rokni*, SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory ; James/C Liu, SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory; X. Stan Mao, SLAC National Accelerator
Laboratory; Alyssa/A Prinz, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Mario
Santana Leitner , SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Joachim
Vollaire, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory LANL As-73/74
Extremity Exposure Events L. S. Walker*, Los Alamos National Laboratory ; M. Duran,
Los Alamos National Laboratory; M. L. Martinez, Los Alamos National
Laboratory; J. Salazar, Los Alamos National Laboratory; P. Ortega,
Los Alamos National Laboratory USPAS at Old
Dominion University January 17-28, 2011 We are proud to
announce that our next program of university-style credit courses will be
sponsored by Old Dominion University and held in Hampton, Virginia from
January 17-28, 2011. Participants may
earn 3 credits from Old Dominion University or may choose to audit their
course. One undergraduate-level course and eleven specialized graduate-level
courses will be offered. Financial support is limited and will be
awarded on a competitive basis. To be considered for financial support you
must submit four documents: a completed application form, a cover letter
explaining why the USPAS is important to your career; your CV; at least one
letter of recommendation. Participation is open to both U.S. and non-U.S.
residents. Please visit http://uspas.fnal.gov for full details and an electronic application.
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FROM THE CORRESPONDENTS News from the Spallation Neutron Source, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory
SNS shipped the first used target module to its final resting
place at the Nevada Test Site in May 2010.
The circulating mercury target material meets the megawatt beam of
protons traveling at 1 GeV inside the stainless steel target module, creating
a shower of neutrons that are moderated and then used by scientific
experiments on 18 SNS beamlines. After
2.3 years and about 3,000 MW-hrs of beam the target module became brittle as
well as highly activated, especially the “nose” section where the proton beam
passes through the target module on its way into the mercury. After removal from service, all mercury was
drained from the target and eventually the spent target module was ready to
be shipped away for disposal. After at
least four months of decay, the empty target module is estimated to contain
about 6,000 Curies of activity, with a long list of isotopes produced by
spallation of the stainless material.
The dose rate of the drained target module was measured to read
approximately 1,500 R/h at a meter. In
order to make sure the target module was completely drained of mercury, two
holes were drilled in the nose section.
The metal coupons resulting from the drilling were about 3 mm thick
and 2 ˝” in diameter. Each of these
coupons measured 25 to 40 R/h at a foot.
The coupons will be examined in order to learn more about damage to
the target module material. Planning and preparation for the disposal of the used target
module began in the earliest days of the SNS project. The target load-out operation affected many
aspects of the design of the Target-handling
portion of the Experiment Hall, and detailed procedure preparation
took place over a period of more than a year.
Many details must be pinned down the first time such an operation
is planned, and some parts of the job will not work out exactly as envisioned
in the quiet of a planner’s office.
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If you wish to contact the editor of this newsletter click here |
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