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) ====================================================================== November/December 1994 Vol. 3, #5 ====================================================================== OFFICERS ====================================================================== President: Nisy Ipe, SLAC President-Elect: Bob May, CEBAF Past President: Geoff Stapleton, SSC Secretary: Steve Musolino, BNL Treasurer: Joe McDonald, PNL Newsletter Editor: Lutz Moritz, TRIUMF Directors: Lorraine Day (1997) Don Cossairt (1997),FNAL De Vaughn Nelson (1996) Paula Trinoskey (1996),LLNL Jerry Miller (1995), LAMPF Carter Ficklen (1995), CEBAF >From the Editor Lutz Moritz ====================================================================== Last month the U.S. DOE held a workshop in order to discuss the requirements for the design and implementation of protection systems at DOE accelerator facilities. Although to non-DOE and non-US labs these may superficially appear to be parochial discussions about the DOE system of hazard classification for accelerators, the central issue is whether one should rely on 'active' monitoring of the maximum beam power or beam spill to control radiation exposures to workers and the public rather than on 'passive' devices (i.e. shielding) designed for the worst case beam excursions. For large, high power accelerators the latter can be a very expensive option. At the workshop there appear to have been many excellent represen- tations by the leading US laboratories which have an interest in this matter. The workshop only managed to open the discussion on this difficult topic and to conclude that further study was required. It called for a working group to review identified issues and recommend effective methods for their resolution. We shall all watch with interest as this work progresses. >From the President Nisy Elizabeth Ipe ====================================================================== Dear Friends: Attached is an announcement about the ANS Topical Meeting in April 1996. As a member of the program committee I have been asked by Keith Spinney (the Technical Program Chairman) if we would have sufficient papers to warrant a session on Accelerator Shielding. Being fully confident that several of you will participate in such a session, I boldly said YES! Therefore I would like to find out how many of you would be willing to present a paper on Accelerator Shielding at this conference. Would you please let me know. Due to the valiant efforts of Manfred Hoefert, we also have a special Accelerator Session at the IRPA conference in Vienna (April 14-19). There may appear to be a slight conflict between the 2 conferences, because they almost overlap, however with a little careful planning one may be able to attend both conferences. As members of the Accelerator Community, let us support both these confernces with our presence and our papers!!!! It's not too early to start planning for 1996! Mark April 21-25, 1996 on your calendar for the 1996 ANS Radiation Protection and Shielding Division Topical Meeting. The theme of the meting is "Advancements and Applications in Radiation Shielding". It is sponsored by the North- eastern Section of the ANS and will take place in Falmouth, Massachusetts (Cape Cod). The General Chair is: Richard (Dick) Cacciapouti - Yankee Atomic Electric Co. 580 Main Street Bolton, MA 01740 Tel: (508) 779-6711 Fax: (508) 779-6730 E-Mail: The Technical Program Chair is: Keith Spinney - Yankee Atomic Electric Co. (same address and phone numbers) E-MAIL: A call for papers will be issued in April 1995, and the deadline for paper summaries will be mid-August 1995. At present the list of topics includes: Accelerator Shielding, Advanced Neutron Shielding, Fusion Reactor Shielding, Advancements and Applications in Discrete Ordinates Methods, Advancements and Applications in Monte Carlo Methods, Comparison of Discrete Ordinates and Monte Carlo Methods, Benchmark Experiments and Integral Tests, Cross Section Libraries and Data Uncertainities, Radiation Streaming, Graphical User Interfaces, Non- Traditional Geometries for Transport Applications, PC Applications/ Computer Visualization, PCs in HP Records Applications, Radiation Detection and Measurement, Digital Dosimetry, Reactor Cavity Gamma Dosimetry, Pressure Vessel Dosimetry, Material Damage Correlatons, Low-Level Waste Packaging and Site Design Issues, Interim Spent Fuel Storage and Transport Casks, Site Characterization and Decommis- sioning, ALARA Program Developments, Dose Reconstruction, Environ- mental Monitoring for Public Perception, Implications of 10CFR20 on Worker Perceptions, Radiation Sources for Medical Applications, Radiation Protection Standards for Medical Applications, Radiation Epidemiology and Health Effects, Activation Analysis, and Robotics Applications. In addition, work is being done to organize a concurrent MCNP tutorial session, and a DORT/TORT workshop on April 20th. MEETINGS Bob May ====================================================================== 1) Technical Session, HPS Annual Meeting at Boston, July 23-27. Please be reminded that we need to build on our previously successful program for our technical session, with more excellent presentations both oral and poster. This year's meeting coincides with Roentgen's discovery of X-rays; an important event for accelerators, and makes it highly appropriate to link the date for our annual meeting with that of the AAPM. Because Roentgen's discovery is closely linked to the opening up of many beneficial and important uses of radiation, a theme of the technical session will be the commercial, industrial and medical exploitation of accelerator radiation. Please don't think we are discouraging anyone from the big national labs from submitting material, these laboratories are of vital importance in making new developments and in the Section's activities; but we also wish to encourage others from the smaller institutions and organizations to come forward and present their work. As a further reminder, when you submit your abstract for Boston please remember to mark your abstract form with a letter code (A) for accelerators. Please think Boston 1995! 2) Charleston Midyear Meeting, January 29-31. The Section will be holding a brief meeting for any members who are attending the Mid-year Topical Symposium. This mid-year meeting provides an early opportunity of updating members on the progress and organization of the Annual Meeting and raising items of business in preparation for the Annual Meeting in the Summer. If any members have items of business that they wish to be considered please pass these on directly to the President (Nisy Ipe), or President Elect (Bob May) or Secretary (Steve Musolino). Please look for the meeting location and time on the "current events" bulletin board at Charleston. 3) One REMINDER Item for Charleston........ The letterhead-logo competition for the Accelerator Section will be finally closed at the Charleston meeting. Please submit designs, to Bob May, Nisy Ipe, Steve Musolino or Geoff Stapleton. The intention is to use the 1994-1995 Executive Board as judges. BOOK REVIEW Alessandro Rindi ====================================================================== Review of "A History of Accelerator Radiation Protection" edited by H. Wade Patterson and Ralph H. Thomas In 1973 H. Wade Patterson and Ralph H. Thomas published "Accelerator Health Physics", the first book that assembled all the knowledge, science and experience regarding radiation protection at high-energy accelerators. At that time I was working at LBL, Berkeley with Wade and Ralph and, if my memory does not betray me, I proposed to call it "The Bible". It has been and still remains a true "bible" for health physicists. I do not know how many copies of that book have been sold; I am afraid they did not become millionaires out of it but I am pretty sure that every accelerator health physicist keeps a copy of it and consults it quite often. The color of some spots on the cover of my copy has shifted from yellow to a soiled white because they contain now a good amount of my fingers' skin. Now Wade and Ralph have edited "A History of Accelerator Radiation Protection" (Nuclear Technology Publishing, Ashford, Kent, TN23 1JW, England 1994, 445 pages). I propose to call it "The Bible of the Bible". In my opinion it is another masterpiece. They were able to organise in a coherent way the contributions of 31 physicists. I was astonished by how they were able to assemble such an interesting book in such a short time: I know that the time limit for contributors was very brief. "A History of Accelerator Radiation Protection" is, in my opinion, a new and interesting way to teach science through history. The various chapters, together with the "biography" of each group and the center to which each contributor belongs, present the scientific path that the person followed for reaching "the right to be a contributor to the book"; i.e. they explain the scientific achievements that were realised in the contributor's group. There are 28 chapters in the book, which means 28 contributions from about 28 research centers. LBL Berkeley, ORNL Oak Ridge, SLAC Stanford, CERN Geneva, ANL Argonne, Saturne France, Frascati Italy, Desy Germany, TRIUMF Canada, I name just a few amongst the oldest; the centers mentioned in the book are the places where the physics and the health physics of the XXth century was developed. To know how the development took place is to learn the science itself. As a note of sorrow, I have the feeling that the book may also be an epilogue for one phase of accelerator health physics. Accelerator Health physics grew as the energy of the accelerators. I am afraid we will not build much more powerful accelerators than the present ones. Emphasis is shifting toward building "useful" accelerators; synchrotron radiation sources, medical facilities, transmutation facilities are being proposed around the world. We may try to increase the intensity but not the energy of the beams. I am, however, confident that health physics will keep developing, even though it may be in some different directions. "A History of Accelerator Radiation Protection" certainly will remain the reference point for any other eventual improvement. Shame on the health physicist who will not assure for himself at least one copy of it: also because the editors' proceeds will go to the "Burton J. Moyer Fellowship Fund". NEWS FROM IARPENL CORRESPONDENTS ====================================================================== News from CEBAF Bob May ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Over 600 Attend Annual APS/DNP Fall Meeting Hosted By CEBAF With some 614 total participants, the 1994 Fall Meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics of the American Physical Society took place October 26 - 29 in Williamsburg, Virginia. J. Dirk Walecka chaired the plenary session on "Future Opportunities in Nuclear Physics," held in preparation for a future call for the next Long Range Plan. In addition to five other sessions of invited papers, 21 sessions of contributed papers, and the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) and U.S. Nuclear Data Network meetings reported on by others previously, highlights included: - A workshop on "Spin Degrees of Freedom in Electromagnetic Nuclear Physics," with 129 attendees. - A workshop on "Data Acquisition and Reduction Issues in Nuclear Physics," with 58 attendees. - The DNP Public Lecture by H. Robertson of the University of Washington, Seattle, whose topic was "The Solar Neutrino Problem: Is the Sun Going Out, or Is No 'nu's' Good News?" - A "town meeting" with standing-room-only turnout. - An APS High School Teachers' Day, with over 30 attendees. - User Group meetings for AGS/RHIC, 88" Cyclotron, Gammasphere, HRIBF, CEBAF, IUCF, ATLAS, and NSCL. - A meeting of the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (CSWP). The Local Committee, chaired by Roy Whitney of CEBAF, included nuclear scientists from CEBAF, Christopher Newport University, the College of William and Mary, Hampton University, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University. CEBAF Director Hermann A. Grunder opened the plenary session and also spoke at the banquet. Over 450 conference participants toured the new CEBAF laboratory in nearby Newport News. News from CERN Alberto Fasso and Manfred Hoefert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- On September 17th, CERN celebrated its 40th anniversary. We had music, games for the children, movies, dance, conferences, a Physics Circus, a virtual reality demonstration and many other attractions. The weather was not very favourable but it was a great success anyway. Many of us were wearing the T-shirt of the 25th anniversary: it looked like it was yesterday... Now on to somewhat lighter subjects: The Energy Amplifier experiment, carried out by a team led by former CERN Director General Carlo Rubbia, has been completed. The aim of the experiment, which took place in an extracted proton beam of the PS synchrotron, was to measure the temperature increase and the neutron fluence in a subcritical assembly of water and natural uranium. The source was a depleted uranium target bombarded with protons ranging in energy from 0.6 to 3 GeV. >From the point of view of radiation protection, this experiment presented some aspects related to the safe handling of fissile materials. These aspects are classical and although rather new for CERN, did not give any problems otherwise. A study is underway to increase the beam intensity in the LEP electron-positron collider using "bunch trains" (several bunches of particles closely following each other. For the last two years, LEP has operated by colliding eight equally spaced bunches of particles, a scheme that has improved the beam intensity to well above the original design. Recently, a test has shown that the new bunch train scheme will improve further the luminosity and could ultimately treble the present performance. This is very important in view of the next phase of the project, when the energy of the two beams will be raised from the present 45 GeV to 90 or even 100 GeV. The new phase will bring several interesting challenges concerning radiation protection and damage, mainly connected with the very intense and very hard synchrotron radiation. With a critical energy between 500 and 700 keV, and dose rates of the order of 50 Gy/h inside the accelerator tunnel, the design of mazes, ducts and other penetrations will be submitted to a very severe test. Ozone and other noxious gases, presently below the detection level, will also be produced in large amounts. A thorough campaign of measurements is being planned in order to check the design calculations which were made more than 10 years ago. On November 7th, a very exciting period started for the CERN physicists. The new heavy ion facility has since that day been delivering lead ion beams at the highest energy ever produced by an accelerator: 35 TeV. For some years now, sulphur and oxygen ions have been accelerated hoping to create the quark-gluon plasma which is supposed to have existed in the early Universe. The energy per nucleon is lower for Pb ions due to the less favourable proton/neutron ratio, but the total energy is impressive, as confirmed by the first pictures of tracks reconstructed in the Time Projection Chambers of some of the experiments: several thousands of charged particles are produced in a single central Pb-Pb collision. The Radiation Protection Group is having a very busy time, since these high multiplicities are reflected in the unusually high neutron fluxes produced by even the smallest beam losses. But a good preparation for this exceptional physics period has allowed us to keep radiation levels within acceptable limits: the shielding around particle beams has been reinforced, and a sophisticated system of monitors and of alarms keeps the two experimental areas concerned under continuous surveillance. We are also making detailed measurements with all types of radiation monitors available to us, with the aim to establish the characteristics of this new exotic radiation field. We are actively revising our Radiation Safety Manual which dates back to 1983, consulting our colleagues inside the laboratory and both the authorities of our host states France and Switzerland. The new text is based strongly on the new Swiss Ordinance on Radiation Protection which itself is inspired to a great extent by ICRP 60. Both the Manual and the Ordinance introduce the new dose limits and risk quantities of ICRP and the operational quantities of ICRU. Graham Stevenson is heading a small section dealing with calculational predictions on radiation parameters for the LHC. After some surprises with the hardware of the dedicated workstation and with the FLUKA94 software, results, in particular with respect to the future experiments ATLAS and CMS, come in loud and clear. As far as the machine proper is concerned we are all waiting for the green light where the German delegation, supported by the British, (this happened notably to Frederick the Great in the Seven Years War!) is sitting on the switch. The switch now will only be thrown if draconian cuts in CERN's budget, including a freeze in salaries, is implemented. Let's keep our fingers crossed for the December session of Council where the future of experimental high-energy physics in general and CERN's future in particular is at stake. Meanwhile we remain optimists and plan for that future. So at the next Scientific Associate Committee meeting on the 9th May 1995 we would like to negotiate for a one-year scientist from a non-member state of CERN, e.g. Japan, Russia or the US, to work with us on the environmental radiation and radioactivity associated with the LHC. Our case would be made stronger if we had a good applicant for such a post. The ideal candidate would be between 25 and 35 years of age, post-doc, interest / experience / knowledge in monitoring techniques. This is an ideal job for a sabbatical at CERN. The candidate must have a job to go back to when our fixed-term post closes. So if anyone wants to consider a sabbatical at CERN - please let us know. Applications must be submitted latest by 5th April 1995. The 9th International Conference of the International Radiation Protection Association, IRPA9, in Vienna in 1996 is still far away but the Programme Committee has already made some important decisions. The Conference will be organised in the form of mini-symposia devoted to specific topics with invited papers only. All other contributions to IRPA9 will be submitted as posters. Thanks to the initial efforts of Ralph Thomas one symposium will deal with Accelerator Health Physics for which the Programme Committee has proposed one of us (MH) to work as the chairman. Following discussions with some senior colleagues in the field we have come up with a list of four subjects that should interest our community even in 1996. Please note that the Programme Committee would like to see a true world-wide representation in the selection of speakers which, in the case of our accelerator community, poses some problems. Here are the proposals: 1. Radiation Problems around Heavy Ion Accelerator Facilities: Here we propose Valerie Aleinikov from Dubna, Russia as the speaker with co-authors Hans Festag from the GSI, Darmstadt, Germany and somebody from Brookhaven's new facility (Name?). 2. Instrumentation and Dosimetry at Accelerator Facilities: Speaker and main author could be Professor Nakamura from Tokyo University. From him our community would not only learn about the recent Japanese developments in neutron dosimetry using semiconductors but also get the Japanese touch that is somewhat different from the Ameri-pean approach. 3. Radiation Problems at the LHC: Speaker Dr. Keith Potter of CERN. Keith is responsible for the experimental areas, and being an excellent speaker, he would move us away somewhat from the inbred HP approach. By the way, Keith has been leader of CERN's Technical Inspection and Safety Division. 4. Software and Hardware Interlocks: Here the Americans are most advanced and could enlighten the rest of the world. Nisy Ipe already contacted Bob Macek from Los Alamos who has been willing to take up this hotly debated subject. Finally the Programme Committee has decided to organise refresher courses on various subjects. Graham Stevenson has already agreed to bring us up to date on accelerator shielding. Will he give us a glance beyond the Standard - sorry - Moyer Model? Once more we are approaching the end of a hectic and, alas, not at all peaceful year. While in the region on the other side of the Atlantic the situation apparently has improved, we in the old world are faced with one of the bloodiest civil wars in history fought at the doorstep of the European house that people of good will are so eager to complete. Let us not give up hope that we may have peace one day! In the name of CERN's RP-Group we would like to extend the best wishes for a Merry X-mas and the upcoming New Year to all our colleagues, Alberto and Manfred. News from JAPAN Takashi Nakamura ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Division of Radiation Science and Technology will soon be founded in the Japanese Atomic Energy Society. The division covers the following fields: 1) Radiation physics and instrumentation, 2) Nuclear data measurement and evaluation, 3) Radiation shielding and transport, 4) Radiation protection and dosimetry, 5) Application of radiation and radioisotopes. The division now has about 150 members and I will be a division head. The division newsletter is circulating by e-mail and FAX about once a month by H. Hirayama at KEK. We hope to have a regional symposium/ meeting with the corresponding organizations in the neighbouring countries and also with the Accelerator Section of the American Health Physics Society or the Division of Radiation Protection and Shielding of the American Nuclear Society in the near future. Heavy ion cancer therapy has started in the HIMAC (Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba) facility of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences. A few patients with head & neck cancers were treated and the next series of treatments will start this October. This accelerator is also open to cooperative research work with researchers outside the NIRS and my group will begin a neutron production and target fragmentation experiment starting this November. The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute plans to have the following meetings: 1) Simulation of hadron many-body system from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 2) High energy nuclear data, maybe in December 3) Workshop on dosimetry of external exposure from Jan. 19 to 20 News from KEK Takenori Suzuki ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The International Symposium on ROLES OF THE KEK-PS IN MEDIUM-ENERGY PHYSICS will be held at KEK from December 12th to 15th, 1994. The purpose is to review the past achievements and future plans for the KEK-PS. Before this symposium, small workshops were held at KEK during October 17th to 19th in order to solicit projects and ideas and to discuss their physics and feasibilities. At the symposium in December, summaries of the workshops on particular subjects will be presented. There were four working subgroups in the workshops: Kaon Physics (KP), Neutrinos (NE), Heavy Ions including primary beam (HI) and Unstable Nuclei (UN). The KP and NE subgroups were conducted in English because of many foreign attendants. The Radiation Safety Control Center at KEK was asked to give a talk in the NE and UN subgroups. In the NE program a neutrino beam will be transmitted to the large Kamiokande water Cherenkov counter from a decay volume with a length of 200 m. The distance from KEK to the Kamiokande counter site is about 300 km. Since the decay volume will be constructed underground, the main radiological problem of interest was to estimate the dose at the KEK boundary due to tritium induced in the earth. In order to estimate the dose, we referred to the IAEA Technical Report Series No. 283 written by Thomas and Stevenson. For the moment there is no concrete design for the facilities and, assuming a constant neutron flux from the decay volume and beam dump, the activation of the soil was calculated. The equation in the reference used to calculate the specific activity in the water available to the public requires knowledge of the dilution factor, which is taken to be due to the total rainfall on the site. If the total rainfall is considered to fall on a large accelerator site such as CERN or Fermilab then one obtains a small dilution factor. We are still wondering if there is a better idea to get the dilution factor. We would like to have comments from experts in the calculation of the dilution factor through this Newsletter. In the UN subgroups, we discussed the safety principles and systems required for the facility. This facility will utilize the 500 MeV proton beams from the Booster synchrotron and the targets used for experiments will be of atomic number up to Z=20, calcium. In Japan, one of the ICRP 60 recommendation will likely be enforced in the near future. The neutron quality factor will be doubled, hence the shielding of the UN and NE facilities will be affected by this change. Takenori SUZUKI TEL office 81-(298)-64-5492 FAX 81-(298)-64-1993 News from SLAC Vashek Vylet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A secondary test beam has been established in the FFTB beam line at SLAC. Secondary electrons that are produced in a target at the beginning of the FFTB using photons generated from collimation of SLC beams in the LINAC. The electron intensity of this parasitic beam is of the order of several hundred per pulse at 120 Hz. Several high- energy physics groups have used this beam for testing detector responses at low rates of <1 electron per pulse. The reduction in rate is accomplished by closing collimators in the beam line. The upper limit of energy for the parasitic beam is currently set at 30 GeV. In a series of measurements a low energy value of 380 MeV was achieved. The proposals for experiments using the test beam are scheduled through test beam coordinator, Roger Gearhart, MS 20 SLAC, Stanford, CA 94309. Accelerator Health Physicists interested in conducting experiments on this beamline are welcome to submit their proposals. (Sayed Rokni ) News from TRIUMF Lutz Moritz ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TRIUMF celebrates 20 years of 'beam' this month. The first negative hydrogen ions were accelerated to the full 500 MeV at 13:07 on December 15th, 1974. At a round of symposia after-dinner speakers nostalgically looked back to a 'golden age of funding' when even $100,000 cheques were sent through the mail. Meanwhile plans continue to develop for an accelerated radioactive beam facility (ISAC) at TRIUMF even though the funding is not sorted out completely. The present concept calls for a target/ion source, which in the 'worst case' would be a stopping target of uranium in a tantalum shell, suspended from a target service module in monolithic shielding. This would be bombarded by 500 MeV protons at a beam intensity of about 10 microamperes. Radioactive ions 'boiled' out of the target would be ionized and, after selection by a mass analyzing magnet, particular species would be accelerated using a system of linear accelerators or even a cyclotron. At the present time the concept for handling the target/ion source modules is to withdraw them vertically from the shielding using a remotely operated crane and to transport them to an adjacent hot cell. The whole operation would take place inside a shielded air-tight building constructed over the target shielding and hot cell. A somewhat scaled-down version of such a facility begins operation at HRIBF (Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility, Oakridge National Laboratory) this month. There, an old cyclotron (ORIC) is being refurbished to accelerate 60 MeV protons which will bombard a target/ ion source modeled after those used in the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The radioactive ions extracted from this system will then be accelerated using the Holifield 50 MeV electrostatic tandem accelerator. The HRIBF will rely on a purpose-built robotic arm to extract the target/ion source and place it into a shielded flask for transport to a service lab. ORNL has some rather stringent ALARA goals and it will be interesting to see how the Holifield facility can work within these while at the same time gearing up to deal with higher radiation fields and greater quantities of radioactivity. FROM THE MEMBERSHIP ====================================================================== We welcome the following new subscribers: Stephen Simpsons R. Dee Colvett (who has the record for longest e-mail address of any IARPE Newsletter subscriber): Kjell Tvera Hans Beijers Steve Butala Julius Almasi CLOSING THOUGHTS ====================================================================== LATE LAST WEEK THE 19 MEMBER STATES APPROVED THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC) FOR CERN. CONGRATULATIONS!!! To everyone all the best for the holiday season and the New Year!