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Accelerator Radiation Safety Newsletter |
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An Official Publication of the Health Physics Society's Accelerator Section Circulation: 476 |
First Quarter 2011 / |
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FROM THE OFFICERS The President's
Message In this first newsletter for 2011, I discuss the 2011 NCRP
Annual Meeting which provided topics strongly related to the radiation
protection aspects of accelerator operations, some further thoughts on the
2013 HPS Mid-Year and as a separate item in this newsletter I provide an
update on the post-earthquake/tsunami status for our colleagues’ J-PARC
facility at Tokai, Japan. Also, you will see items from Linnea
Wahl relating to our Section’s great success in obtaining 2011 HPS awards for
our members (two G. William Morgan Lectureships and the Founders Award). Rich
Brey provides information on the rapidly approaching 2011 HPS Annual Meeting
in Palm Beach, for which the HPS sent out pre-registration information just
this past week. There also is an item on the post-earthquake/tsunami effects
on KEK in Japan. The President Elect's
Message I’m happy to report that the 2011 HPS Mid-Year Meeting (see Sam
Baker’s article in this issue of ARSN) was a substantial success for the HPS
Accelerator Section and that the 2011 HPS Annual Meeting to be held in Palm
Beach, Florida this June seems to be shaping up into yet another useful and
productive effort. There are many exciting events on the horizon and I encourage
your attendance and participation at the 2011 HPS Annual Meeting to
capitalize on these efforts. The Past President's
Message If you didn’t already know it, this summer’s annual meeting of
the Health Physics Society will remind you of the vast talent that resides in
the HPS Accelerator Section. As proof, the section will sponsor not one but
two lectureship awardees at the Acceleration Section special session on
“Neutrons from Accelerators.” Both section members have been chosen by the
HPS Awards Committee to receive G. William Morgan Lectureships: Scott Walker
will discuss his work on dosimetry, measurement, and spectroscopy of
high-energy neutrons, and Don Cossairt will present
his lecture titled “Chadwick’s Neutron and the Role of New Particles in
Accelerator Health Physics.” Congratulations to Scott and Don. |
Also of interest • Professional Development School OFFICERS
Eric Burgett, Idaho State University Lorraine Marceau-Day, Louisiana State University Elsa Nimmo, University of California, Berkeley Reg Ronningen, Michigan State University |
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J-PARC Post-Earthquake Status The following notes
provided to the Japan Proton
Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) users’ community update the
post-earthquake facility’s status. I’m sure we all share the sentiment that
exists on many websites around the world today: “We would like to express our
deep sympathy to the people suffering damage by the Tohoku-Chihou-Taiheiyo-Oki Earthquake.” The good news is that as
of April 4, 2011 no one was
killed or badly injured, the bad news is the research program is on
indefinite hold. Dr. Ralph
Thomas to Receive 2011 HPS Founders Award Dr. Ralph Thomas, a
founding member and second president of the Health Physics Society (HPS)
Accelerator Section, has been named as the next recipient of the HPS Founders
Award. This prestigious award is presented to recognize exceptional
contributions to the health physics profession or the HPS over a lifetime of
service to the profession. Dr. Thomas is deeply deserving of this award and
joins other notable recipients of the Founders Award such as H. Wade
Patterson and J. Newell Stannard. From the
Nominations Committee Chair Dear Colleagues, The Nominations
Committee is still actively seeking nominations for Accelerator Section
Officers. We have plenty of members willing to serve as Directors, but need
some additional brave souls to consider running for Executive Committee
positions: President-Elect, Secretary, and Newsletter Editor. The
President-Elect position is for a three-year term (President-Elect
transitions to President and Past-President positions with some
responsibility in each position). The Secretary position is for two years,
and the Newsletter Editor is for one year. Accelerator Session at the HPS 2011
Midyear Meeting in Charleston, S.C. Sam Baker from
Argonne National Laboratory and Roger Moroney from
Siemens co-chaired the Accelerator Session at the HPS Midyear Meeting on
Wednesday, February 9. There were
eight presentations on accelerator radiation measurements. The co-chairs spoke first: Sam discussed
measurements made during the commissioning of the fission fragment source at
Argonne’s ATLAS accelerator. Roger
then quantified the induced radioactivity for a compact 11 MeV self-shielded cyclotron to determine the necessary
decommissioning funding.
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FROM THE CORRESPONDENTS News from KEK, High Energy Accelerator
Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan Due to a heavy earthquake on March 11 in Japan, no person was
injured in KEK. We found only two radiation monitors were broken in the
building of a 1.3 GeV electron linac.
We found 87 monitors are not damaged, though we didn’t test 45 ones yet. Four
Ge detectors were damaged. One was placed in a Pb shield. About half of Pb blocks
were placed above an acrylic plate, and they slipped off aside. Due to an
electric power failure in KEK, our radiation monitors did not work. But some
at the KEK site boundary were powered from outside. In early morning on March
15, we found a steep increase of gamma-ray dose rate. KEK is located at 160
km distance from Fukushima nuclear power plants. KEK, in conjunction with
National Institute for Environmental Study (NIES), measured airborne
radioactive-nuclide using a Ge detector. I-131 and
Te-132 were found. These results are shown in http://www.kek.jp/quake/radmonitor/index-e.html Gamma-ray dose rates increased on the 15th and 16th,
and 20-22th. Now it decreases a little.
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If you wish to contact the editor of this newsletter click here |
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