INTERNATIONAL ACCELERATOR RADIOLOGICAL PROTECTION E-MAIL (IARPE) NEWSLETTER "The Official Publication of the Accelerator Section of the Health Physics Society" (with Contributions from International Correspondents) ====================================================================== June/July 1993 Vol. #2, #5 ====================================================================== OFFICERS ====================================================================== President: Ralph Thomas, LLNL Past President: Wade Patterson, LLNL President-Elect: Geoff Stapleton, SSCL Secretary/Treasurer:Nisy Ipe, SLAC Directors (1 Year): Frank Masse', MIT BATES Paul Neeson, D.O.E. Directors (2 Year): Gerald Fallon, MIT BATES Paula Trinoskey, LLNL Directors (3 Year): Carter Ficklen, CEBAF Jerry Miller, LANL >From the Editor's Terminal (Bob May ) ====================================================================== Please note that this issue "preceeds" the Health Physics Society Meeting in Atlanta. The next issue will contain important information from the Accelerator Section Meeting such as the meeting minutes and change in Officers of the Section. As a result, the Officers listed above will change. The Book Review in the April Newsletter was originally written by David Perry at the request of Nuclear Technology Publishing (Rad Prot Dosimetry Vol 46 no3 p213 1993). Many thanks to David for ensuring that I give proper attention to the publisher. Welcome to those recently added to the subscription list by Nisy Ipe. We hope you will both profit from and contribute to the IARPE News- letter. An important change in the Newsletter staff has taken place. Lutz Moritz has agreed to take the job of Editor. We hope soon to add an Assistant Editor to support Lutz in this effort. Please welcome him with your contributions for the August issue at E-mail address . Thank you all. Bob >From the President ====================================================================== A Call for International Cooperation. 4 July 1993 At 5 am on the fourth of July as I sit down to write this, my last article in the Newsletter to you as President of the Accelerator Section, there is much to think on. First my greetings to you on this National Day of celebration in the USA and my greetings to our Canadian colleagues on their recent celebration of Canada Day! Indeed my greetings to you all on the celebration of your own national identity on your national days! Such thoughts lead me quite naturally from the National to the International. With so much political controversy in the world leading to truely heart-rending examples of "Man's inhumanity to Man" I have always drawn inner strength from knowing that science is international in character and, if it remains true to objectivity, transcends national, geographical or political boundaries. The enormous successes of the international particle physics laboratory, CERN, at Geneva is the example par excellence of this spirit. As you know one of my goals this year as President was to make the Section truely world-wide in character. At the IRPA meeting in Montreal I was encouraged to hear that many colleagues in Asia and Europe shared this enthusiasm. We had been given an excellent start in this regard by Nisy Ipe with her "Newsletter" that has been continued by Bob May. The "Newsletter" is widely appreciated within the accelerator radiation protection community and more than a hundred people receive it at no cost to themselves. There is a "cost", however! It is the cost of personal commitment and enthusiasm- their own time and money-by those who produce the "Newsletter." I believe these people deserve your encouragement. You can do this and lend your support to a the creation of a truely international, professional group devoted to the study of Accelerator Radiation Environments by joining the Accelerator Section. So far I am pleased to report that the membership of the Section is growing in size - about 17% of our members are from overseas. In this regard I am delighted to recognize the excellent response of our Japanese colleagues. However, the response from Europe has been less encouraging: our records show only 3 (yes 3!) members from Western Europe. The cost is trivial (US$6) but your support brings enormous power. We are, for example, trying to persuade the programme committee for IRPA9 (Vienna) to allow the accelerator community to have a session devoted to accelerator radiation issues. You may see that with 3 European members it is difficult to argue that we represent the international community! As I have already said the cost is small but we recognize that there are currency restrictions in some countries that sometimes make for difficulties. If this is the case let me know and I will, in strict confidence, solve the problem. I will leave you with this thought: "A common contribution being necessary for the support of the Accelerator Section, and for the defrayment of the other expenses of its operation, it ought to be divided equally among the community according to their abilities"- with apologies to Article 13, Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens, National Assembly of France, quoted in Thomas Paine "The Rights of Man", 1791. It has beeen a pleasure and privilege to serve you. Au revoir! Happy 4th of July NEWS FROM IARPENL CORRESPONDENTS ====================================================================== News from Brookhaven (Steve Musolino ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Alternating Gradient Syncrotron (AGS) set a new record for beam intensity, achieving 2.214 x 10+13 protons per pulse (p/p) on the night of Tuesday, June 22. This record which meets the U.S. Depatment of Energy's milestone mark for 1993 was made possible by the AGS Booster, said AGS Accelerator Divison Head Bill Weng. "With this intensity the newly construvted Booster has delivered on its first promise to the AGS high energy physics program," he said. Now that this goal has been achieved, the acclerators' personnel will begin work toward thier 1994 goal of 4 x 10+14 p/p, which is expected to be achieved following a radio frequency upgrade this fall. Steve Musolino News from CEBAF (Bob May ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CEBAF's Program Advisory Committee Considers More Proposals In preparation for the program of nuclear science to be carried out at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility starting next year, CEBAF's Program Advisory Committee (PAC) met June 14-18 to consider 43 new experimental proposals submitted earlier this year. Two additional proposals involving the accelerator's injector region are being considered separately. This sixth PAC meeting expanded the tallies of PAC recommendations, so that now a total of 440 scientists from 105 institutions in 18 countries are participants in preparations for experiments recommended for approval or for conditional approval. (Of these totals, experiments unconditionally recommended for approval involve 374 scientists at 93 institutions in 15 countries.) A full report on PAC6 is planned to be available in August. The PAC, chaired by Prof. John Cameron of the University of Indiana, has also received 13 new letters of intent. In a related development, Prof. Paul Stoler of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute assumed office as the new User Group chair at the annual summer workshop meeting held in late May and attended by over 135 users and CEBAF scientists. Prof. Doug Beck of the University of Illinois was voted chair-elect. New additions to the board of directors included professors Elizabeth Beise of the University of Maryland and Ron Gilman of Rutgers University. Steve Corneliussen News from CERN (Manfred Hoefert ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Opening of Dubna's International University Training Centre During six weeks starting 12 July 1993 the International University of Dubna opened its Training Centre in the premises of a former sanatorium at Ratmino, a small village located six kilometres outside Dubna at the banks of the Volga river. As tourist attraction Ratmino has an important stud and a beautiful recently reconstructed orthodox church. Whenever you visit the place don't miss a service and observe the devoutness of the people and listen to their fervent chants. The International University of Dubna Training Centre has two objectives as was mentioned in the opening lecture by the Director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Prof. V. G. Kadyshevsky, presenting the draft charta of the then founded IUDTC: Giving to JINR's concentrated brain power the additional new challenge of unfolding their knowledge by lecturing postgraduates from all countries and at the same time broaden the horizon of students from Russia and the new Republics inviting in addition foreign lecturers. The course language is English but during the first week many lectures were given in Russian with simultaneous translation provided into the other language respectively. In spite of the momentarily difficult economic situation of the country both lecturers and students were imbedded into the proverbially overwhelming Russian hospitality. While the Chernobyl accident is still much on the mind of the Russian people with many presentations devoted to this subject a noticeable part of the lectures in the first two weeks curriculum "Physical Aspects of Radiation Protection" concerned accelerator health physics with Ralph Thomas talking about "Radiological Safety Aspects of Proton Accelerators", Michael Komochkov giving a lecture on "Radiation Protection Research in the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research", Metec Zielczynski digging into "Dosimetry of Mixed Radiation" and I presenting " Radiation Planning for the LHC in the Light of New ICRP Recommendations 60 and 64". That we from the accelerator community felt so much at home was due to JINR's research programme still much influenced by the presence of machines like the Phasotron and the Nucletron and to the presence of our friend Valerie Aleinikov being one of the spiritus rectors of the IUDTC and always actively devoted to the cause. Some highlights during the first week while I assisted (Ralph will write in IARPE about the second week of the course) were the lecture by Prof. V. G. Petrosyan "Modern Problems of Relations Between Man and Biosphere" where, referring mostly to chemical pollutants, he insisted that in all cases an early prevention comes cheaper than later cleaning. He has founded an Open Ecological University in Moscow with growing success to make people conscious about their environment. He hopes to spread his idea around to other places in the former Soviet Union. Prof. K. Filushkin criticised in his lecture "Effects of Low Radiation on Health: Radiation Protection Problems and Decisions" the new ICRP standards asking the following questions: Does a teratogenic effect exist, is there a net benefit from low levels of radiation due to hormesis, is the abnormally high cancer risk stipulated by ICRP real, what is the true DDREF. Prof. Yu. Oganessian informed us in his lecture on "Interactions of Heavy Ions with Matter" about the more practical applications of JINR's accelerators i.e. creating micro sieves from plastic sheets and producing isotopes for research and medicine. In providing 237Pu (short half-life and practically no alpha emitter) they were able for the first time in collaboration with a British team to study in vivo and in detail the metabolism of plutonium in man without any harmful effects for the persons involved in the experiment. Prof. V. P. Perelygin talked "On the Determination of Low Pu Contents in the Environment". Their method permits the detection 10-14 g/g of Pu in the environment while microgram quantities incorporated are sufficient to kill a person. This in the light of the fact that in our world at least one megaton of 239Pu is stored in nuclear weapons nobody knows how to get rid of in a clean way. Finally Dr. M. O. Degteva informed us about the heavy contamination of the Techa river near Chelyabinsk that occurred during the years 1949 to 1952 with releases of liquid radioactive waste from the Soviet nuclear program with values up to 2000 Ci per day in her talk entitled "Population exposure in the Southern Urals: Exposure situation and Dose Reconstruction". A cohort of 27800 people living at the banks of the Techa river had received during the years 1950 to 1956 (when they were eventually evacuated from the region) doses in the range from 0 to 3 Gy with a mean value of 0.4 Gy both from internal (90Sr and 137Cs) and external exposure. Contrary to the atomic bomb victims these persons were subject to chronic exposures. Dr. Degteva is member of a Russian team together with the financial support and together with scientists from Germany, Japan and the USA trying to reconstruct the individual doses, as usual a difficult task. Epidemiological studies are performed in parallel and should lead possibly when finished to improved risk figures for man in the case of chronic exposures. During the week an excursion took place to the Chiip factory for nuclear instruments in Moscow where efforts are made to produce cheap radiation detectors intended to be used by the population, surely an overreaction to Chernobyl. While after this visit some participants had a rushed tour through the Kremlin I preferred to mingle with the Muscovite people. You develop a mixed feeling of anger, shame and sadness when you see the price for a Big Mac at 1350 Rbl while a good monthly salary in Russia amounts to 10000 Rbl, with an official exchange rate of 1 U$ = 1000 Rbl. At GUM's on Red Square you can buy everything from Japanese electronics to French fashion, from German car accessories to American software (in Russian), but when you consider the price tag in Rbl and take off three zeros you will find the prices you would pay in U$ equivalent in Tokyo, Paris, Berlin or New York. No Russian earning a normal salary could even dream affording these things. On Saturday before I left Ratmino the IUDTC offered as social programme to all the participants a day trip to the monastery of Sergiev Pasad formally known under the name of Sagorsk. Whenever you come to Moscow don't miss it. This fortress constructed by the Russian Tsars against the Tartar invasions from the East encompasses a whole complex of churches from the early middle ages to the baroque and a seminary that never stopped educating ministers under the old regime. Mnafred Hoeffert Report from CERN for July Summertime holiday time? This year nothing like that at CERN as starting on 23 July the CERN-CEC irradiation facility received a beam of up to 1.2 E8 positive particles (mostly protons) with a momentum of 205 GeV/c every 14.4 seconds hitting a copper target of 50 cm length and 7 cm diameter. The target was placed in a defined geometry (that will also permit to compare the results of MC-calculations with experimental results) either under a pure iron shielding of 40 cm or behind concrete shielding of 80 or 160 cm thickness. This configuration provided three types of distinct secondary particle spectra outside the shielding. RP group supplied the necessary beam monitoring and the logistic support for teams coming from 16 institutes all over Europe: ARC Vienna, DESY Hamburg, ENEA Rome, GSF Munich, GSI Darmstadt, INFN Milano, IRA Lausanne, LNF Frascati, NRPB Harwell, PSI Villingen, PTB Braunschweig, SSI Stockholm, University of Giessen, University of Homburg, University of Milano, University of Prague. These teams came to CERN with a multitude of detectors like Bonner sphere systems, both normal and with extended response (lead inserts or fission and threshold detectors), normal and extended rem counters, commercial TEPCs but also special developments, scintillation spectrometers, proportional counters, GM-tubes, ion chambers, TLDs, albedo dosemeters and CR39. CERNs RP group employed its TEPC, Bonner spheres, activation detectors, diodes and the recombination chamber REM-2. With Dr Abbas Aroua (sponsored by the HSK in Switzerland) and Dr Alexander Sannikov (paid associate on leave of absence from Serpukhov) working presently in RP, my group has actually a good team of specialists in response matrices and unfolding techniques. This should help getting the results of this experiment into shape. In addition Dr James Liu from SLAC in an exchange with Alberto Fasso who is presently in California has and will spend part of his time on the evaluation of the results. When on Friday morning July 30th at 8.00 hours the beam that had been operational for a full week for testing the behaviour of radiation protection instruments and detectors finally stopped it left behind a handful of tired shift leaders from CERN who had worked on day, night and owl shifts. I should thank not only those but all my colleagues of RP group and in particular Dr Dinter from DESY who have served in the preparation of and during the CERN-CEC experiment sometimes during awkward times. This running period was initially considered by us as a learning exercise but as it turned out many of the participants went already home this time with a load of good results. It seems that the spectral situation in the radiation field on top of the concrete shielding resembles rather well the radiation situation in an aeroplane such that the CERN-CEC radiation facility could in fact be used as a reproducible test ground for active and passive detectors that are actually being discussed of being good candidates for in flight measurements. During the beam time CERN has worked according to its original vocation namely being a service installation for groups coming to CERN for doing their experiments. My group is now working furnishing the reference beam intensities, doses and dose equivalents to all the participants such that the various results could be compared. In fact while the data taken individually have their importance their real value is only elucidated in an intercomparison of all the results. Manfred Hoefert News from DESY (Herbert Dinter ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- After some weeks of machine development, the e-p-storage ring HERA is running now for experiments since beginning of June. Luminosity has been increased continuously and reached 1.10**30 cm-2s-1. The radiation detected in accessible areas within the experimental halls is very low and far from the level requiring a "controlled area". However, it is too early to cheer up, because the beam intensities presently are still a factor of around 10 below the design values. In the beginning of May the decision was met to terminate high energy physics at the storage ring DORIS. After 9 years of successful operation the detector ARGUS finished its experimental program and e+e- -physics was closed down at DESY. DORIS is now running as an e- -storage ring dedicated to synchrotron radiation for the HASYLAB experiments. The Radiation Protection Group at DESY takes part in a collaboration initiated by the RP-group of CERN (see M.Hoefert in IARPE April 1993). In two experimental periods, neutron spectra and dose equivalents were measured behind concrete an iron shielding. An experimental arrangement was used consisting of a set of Bonner spheres (loaded with thermoluminescence detectors), together with solid state fission track detectors (MAKROFOL with thorium or bismuth radiators). Preliminary results are available. The comparison with FLUKA- calculations show good agreement. Herbert Dinter News from SLAC (Vashek Vylet ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Radiation Physics group bid farewell to Yoshi Namito, a Health Physicist from KEK, who just finished a three month visit at SLAC. Yoshi was kept busy during his stay, using his expertise with EGS4 and muon transport to help with design work in FFTB, the upcomming milli- charge experiment and other problems that were thrown at him. We will not stay short of visitors for long though, since Alberto Fasso from CERN will join the SLAC RP group in July for a period of six months. In exchange, our colleague James Liu will be working at CERN during that period. The first test ever of the virgin FFTB (Final Focus Test Beam) will occur on July 7 and 8. The purpose of this test is to check the beam containment system and radiation safety aspects of the operation. Radiation Physics and Operational Physics will conduct extensive radiation surveys and tests for several beam loss scenarios. Vashek Vylet FROM THE MEMBERSHIP ====================================================================== This is just a reminder that there is a listserv list available for discussions related to radiation safety and Health Physics. Please consider subscribing to it and making a contribution in order to help us get the critical mass necessary in order to sustain a moderate level of discussion. The list is RADSAFE@ROMULUS.EHS.UIUC.EDU. To subscribe to the list, simply send an email message to LISTSERV@ROMULUS.EHS.UIUC.EDU and put the following line in the text of your message: SUBSCRIBE RADSAFE Thanks! Hope to see you there. Also, please note that we have a gopher server here on romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu with a large collection of health physics related files, including the placement ads from the Health Physics Society Newsletter. Contribution to the file collection are welcome. * Origin: Check Source BBS 217-244-6954 (1:233/13.0) SAFETY - via FidoNet node 1:233/13 (ehsnet.fidonet.org) Has any one heard the results of the vote yet regarding the charter for sci.physics.accelerators , an unmoderated newsgroup for particle accelerators? The vote began on Monday, June 21, 1993, 00:01 GMT and was held through Tuesday, July 20. CLOSING THOUGHTS ====================================================================== It has certainly been true in the past that what we call intelligence and scientific discovery has conveyed a survival advantage. Stephen Hawking From "A Brief History of Time" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HEALTH PHYSICS SOCIETY ACCELERATOR SECTION ANNUAL DUES PAYMENT The HPS Accelerator Section has initiated a system for dues collection through the Health Physics Society. Please complete the following form. 1993 Accelerator Section Dues $________ ($6 IRPA affiliates) Please check only one: _____VISA _____MASTERCARD _____CHECK ENCLOSED (Payable to HPS) Card#:________________________________ Exp. Date:____________________ Card Holders Name:_____________________________________ (Please Print) Signature: _____________________________________ Full Mailing Address:_________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Telephone:__________________FAX:_________________ E-Mail Address:__________________________________ ====================================================================== ALL PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE IN U.S. DOLLARS, DRAWN ON U.S. BANKS, U.S. POSTAL MONEY ORDERS, U.S. TRAVELERS CHECKS, MASTERCARD AND VISA WILL ALSO BE ACCEPTED. RETURN THIS FORM TO: HPS ACCELERATOR SECTION C/O BURK & ASSOCIATES INC. 8000 WESTPARK DRIVE, SUITE 130 MCLEAN, VA 22102 U.S.A. TELEPHONE (703) 790-1745 FAX (703) 790-9063