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) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- September/October 1997 Circulation: 194 Vol.6, #5 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This edition is dedicated with respect and admiration to H. Wade Patterson (1924 - 1997) OFFICERS President: Vashek Vylet, SLAC President-Elect: Steve Musolino, BNL Past President: Lutz Moritz, TRIUMF Secretary: Scott Walker, LANL Treasurer: Gerry Fallon, MIT Newsletter Editor:Scott Schwahn, Jefferson Lab Directors: Jeff Leavey, IBM (1998) Tracy Tipping, KSU (1998) Wes M. Dunn, Texas Department of Health (1999) Henry Kahnhauser, BNL (1999) Bob May, Jefferson Lab (2000) Keith Welch, Jefferson Lab (2000) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS [Image] (with apologies to Scott Adams) * From the Editor * From the President * Feature Article * News from correspondents: o CERN o Fermilab o Jefferson Lab o KEK o LNF o SLAC * Job Announcement * Accelerator Operations Workshop * How to subscribe or update subscription * Closing thought --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the Editor Scott Schwahn --------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is my sad honor to dedicate this Newsletter to such a good role model for the younger of us, and a well-respected colleague to all of us. Wade will be sorely missed. This newsletter features contributions from CERN, Fermilab, Jefferson Lab, KEK, LNF, and SLAC. Note that that is three contributions from the States and three from the rest of the world. I think that is GREAT! Thank you to all those in other countries for submitting articles, especially when English may not be a first language! That should also encourage other U.S. accelerator facilities to write some articles for upcoming issues. I would also encourage those of you who have contacts in other facilities, especially from those around the world, to encourage them to subscribe and contribute. I would really like to see some contributions from ITEP (Russia), but I know no one there. Following the correspondent news, you will find a job announcement from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and an announcement for the 1998 Accelerator Operations Workshop. The web version also includes a Call for Papers and Registration Form for this workshop, which I felt to be too much for the e-mail version. In order to get this Newsletter out in a timely fashion, I will be sending the Feature Article in a future mailing. It was written by Geoffrey Stapleton and is a technical discussion on skin dose in an electron accelerator vault. It is full of equations, tables, and graphics, so I have to work on a method to best present it to both readers of the e-mail version and the web version. Last month, I announced the existence of the IARPE Newsletter and Website to the RADSAFE discussion group, resulting in about 10 more subscriptions and over 100 extra hits to the website. I am hoping that some of these people will consider becoming Accelerator Section members. We'll see. As always you can find the IARPE Newsletter website at . Don't worry - there is a non-frames version for those of you who don't like frames! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From the President Vashek Vylet --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear colleagues, With Wade's passing the Accelerator Section became an orphan of its founding member, who watched its first steps and helped it to grow. I admired Wade both as a person and as a scientist. In spite of his prominent position in our field, he was very modest, friendly, always ready to help. He assumed many duties in the Health Physics Society without worrying about prestige or visibility of any particular task: serving as the first President of our section, chairing sessions at HPS meetings or simply checking calculators and serving as proctor at ABHP certification exams. I had a chance to observe his organizational skills at work when he was setting up the panel discussion for the HPS Midyear Meeting in San Jose. As most of his endeavors, it was a resounding success. Wade will remain in my memory as a wonderful human being and an example to follow. I am reproducing below information that circulated around by e-mail, for those who did not have a chance to see it: Wade's family have suggested that, in lieu of flowers, those who wish to may make donations to the Burton J. Moyer Award. Checks made payable to the Burton J. Moyer Award should be sent to: Burton J. Moyer Award c/o Executive Secretary Health Physics Society 1313 Dolly Madison Blvd. Suite 402 Mclean, VA 22101 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE ARTICLE Geoffrey Stapleton --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Feature Article deals with air activation and the resultant exposure in an electron accelerator vault. Due to its highly technical, equation-laden format, the Feature Article is available for download from the public ftp site: . This is an ASCII Postscript file. Once you have downloaded it, you can send it directly to a Postscript-compatible printer and read the article. Sorry for the inconvenience. -Editor --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from CERN Manfred Hoefert (with a special contribution by Marco Silari) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The topic of quality assurance (QA) in radiation protection suddenly sprung up in Europe. In a recent talk dealing with the subject we learned that in the States more then 90% of all enterprises are ISO 9000 certified while here on the Continent the figure is less than 50%. While we all strive for quality in our daily work the ISO certification procedure is heavy and loaded with paperwork such that it needs additional and moreso specialized staff. As everywhere also at CERN staff figures are run down such that we in Radiation Protection cannot envisage the full procedure (Remember: Dogbert sticking the label Coffee Machine on the very instrument). Nevertheless the Group has started in the direction of QA looking carefully into what already existed and what was formerly called Complementary Documents (CD) to our Radiation Safety Manual. These CDs, originally we had only 9, are now called Radiation Protection Procedures (PRP). In the meantime they have reached an impressive 20 and cover subjects like individual dosimetry, access into special radiation areas, expedition of radioactive material, use of instruments. All are presently revised and made into a form coming close to ISO 9000 documents with the name of a responsible person and the date of next revision shown. By the end of the year the work should have been finished with the total number of PRPs possibly having reached 30. I consider this documentation particularly important in the light of a wave of retirements that will hit RP in the coming years when all the expertise that is not well written down will be lost. It would be interesting to know how other labs deal with the issue of quality assurance and passing on expertise. And since I am speaking of the new generation: Dr. Doris Forkel-Wirth now moved to the RP premises and will work closely with Jan Tuyn whom she will replace in the beginning of 1998. Following our efforts in Switzerland before the summer the "sales campaign" for CERN's LHC will start again on 20 October with a presentation and an exhibition of the new project in the French commune of Cessy. Following a rough public debate on French television on 4 October about the nuclear issue in France we shall go there with somewhat mixed feelings. In fact, one of CERN's former collaborators stricken by cancer was presented as a victim of nuclear power on this extremely popular show and confronted with George Charpak, the latter being shouted down by the mostly antinuclear audience. So it happened, what we have always feared and fought, that CERN was placed in the same basket with the nuclear lobby in spite of the fact that our name had long been changed from European Centre for Nuclear Research to European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Marco sent me the following contribution: Since 1995, measurements of synchrotron radiation (SR) in the LEP tunnel are regularly carried out at each new value of the LEP energy. This measurement campaign, also asked for by the French INB authorities, will last until next year when LEP will reach about 97 GeV beam energy. In the course of this program, an investigation on the radiation level around the polarization wigglers was carried out during the 80.5 GeV and 86 GeV runs of last year. Calculations have suggested that the superposition of the SR fans emitted by the set of three wigglers that are installed at both sides of interaction points 3 and 7, results in well localized peaks where a high doses are locally deposited. The position of these peaks is a function of the beam energy. This local concentration of SR may induce localized thermal stresses in the water-cooled aluminum vacuum chamber. To verify experimentally the predictions, measurements were carried out along the vacuum chamber in the proximity of the wiggler units. Integrated dose measurements were performed with alanine dosimetry during the 80 GeV run; additional measurements were carried out at 86 GeV with a Geiger-M=FCller counter installed on a robot moving in the tunnel. The latter were made at three specific energies (22, 45 and 86 GeV) by operating the robot for limited periods of time under well defined beam conditions. From the results of the measurements the predicted well-localized deposition of synchrotron radiation power in the aluminum vacuum chamber of LEP around the polarization wigglers was not confirmed. Although no direct comparison can be made between predictions (linear power density deposited in the vacuum chamber) and measurements (integrated dose or dose rate measured alongside the vacuum chamber), the experimental results show that the measured radiation pattern is much more flattened out than predicted and the observed oscillations cannot generally be imputed to the superposition of the SR emissions from the wigglers. For further reading: M. Silari and L. Ulrici, The effect of the polarization wigglers on radiation levels in the LEP tunnel, TIS-RP/IR/97-30. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from Fermilab Don Cossairt --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 10.5 MeV 3He++ Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Radiofrequency Quadrupole (RFQ) Accelerator at Fermilab has achieved stable running at 100 microamp electrical current. Some preliminary foil activation studies have been performed. Neutron dose equivalent rates at the interfaces between the RFQs have been increasing. This appears to be due to the loss of the copper plating on the aluminum surfaces inside the RFQs. It is not clear how much worse the dose rates will get. Tungsten aperture plates are being studied to see if such an insert would decrease the neutron dose equivalent rates. If the beam hits the tungsten plate instead of the copper/aluminum RFQ surface, the neutron rates should be considerably lower. Initial tests do not look promising. Indications are that considerably more beam is beaming lost on the tungsten plate than was being lost on the RFQ surfaces. Otherwise, at Fermilab we are dealing with a major shutdown to significantly modify the facility. Control of dose equivalent received while working on radioactive materials will be a major achievement during the coming year. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from Jefferson Lab Bob May and Scott Schwahn --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From Bob: First 4 GeV Three-Beam Split at Jefferson Lab's CEBAF On 20 August 1997, a five-pass, 4.045 GeV cw electron beam was split for delivery to the three experimental halls of Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). With Hall A having joined Hall C in full operation for nuclear physics, and with Hall B in advanced stages of commissioning, this was the first demonstration of CEBAF's capability to provide beams for three simultaneous experiments at the accelerator's full design energy. The achievement also represents further progress toward significantly exceeding the design energy. After initial use of all three RF separators together, the three-way split was sustained by two separators running at slightly higher power -- a substantial indication of a three-separator capability for the three-way splitting of 6 GeV beams. CEBAF at Jefferson Lab Operated at Maximum Design Current The CEBAF accelerator at Jefferson Lab has been operated at its design energy and maximum current. The accelerator first reached full 4 GeV energy in May 1995, and has been supporting the planned experimental program -- first in Hall C alone, and later in Hall A as well. More recently, with Hall B nearly fully commissioned and about to come on-line, full-energy beam was first split three ways, as reported last month. Then the machine's design current was reached as well in a special test unrelated to the experiments, none of which yet requires high current. On 16 September, sustained, stable, physics-quality full-energy beam was run at 200 microamperes. From Scott: These increased demands from the accelerator will place increasingly high demands on the RadCon staff. Our group put in quite a bit of overtime last year and was asked to reduce such overtime in this fiscal year as a result of shrinking Federal funds. As a result, we have been having to "calibrate" the rest of the laboratory, especially the Users, on proper scheduling for RadCon support. The Free Electron Laser (FEL) facility at Jefferson Lab has also provided some challenges. Since it is a new building, and installation of machine components has been proceeding, they have found out that it is necessary to retrofit some of the building structure to install certain parts. Since the building itself serves as the bulk of the radiation shielding, we have had to keep a close eye and assist in making this work. We are ever mindful that we are here as operations support, helping to add to the project as a whole, with appropriate controls, but not serving solely as an impediment. I might ask the question for you in each of your facilities... are you acting as an impediment, or serving to contribute to the success of your organization? An interesting situation that we have: since Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations Part 835 (10CFR835) requires posting based on actual radiation levels rather than potential levels, we have some "conditional postings" in place here. Specifically, we have conditional Airborne Radiation Areas, conditional Radiation Areas, etc.; each of these is conditional on some sort of visual signal - a rotating beacon or the like. For instance, we have air samplers constantly sampling our experimental halls, so that if the airborne radioactivity exceeds 10% of the Derived Air Concentration (DAC), a beacon lights. Below this beacon is a sign that indicates that if the beacon is lit, the area is an Airborne Radiation Area. Appropriate cautions are also made on the sign. We think that this type of setup keeps us in strict compliance with 10CFR835, and yet does not require us to post and depost an area every few minutes. I spoke with a colleague of mine in another accelerator facility who posts much more conservatively - by the highest expected levels. One might argue that they are conservative and therefore justified, but another might argue that they are not in compliance with the law (posting an area which has conditions that does not match the posting) and are desensitizing the workers. This may be food for thought for your next contribution to the Newsletter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from KEK Hideo Hirayama --------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The First International Workshop on EGS4 The First International Workshop on EGS4 was successfully held at KEK, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, from August 26 to 29 with the participants over 100 including 12 overseas ones. At the workshop, 34 talks were presented from the low-energy problems to the high-energy ones in the various research fields like the medical physics, particle or nuclear physics etc. The proceedings of this workshop will be published as the KEK proceedings. It will be announced when it will be available. Next International Workshop will be held in 2000 again at KEK. The short course on EGS4 was also held from August 24 to 25 before the workshop. About 50 participants learned about EGS4 and did practices to install the EGS4 system or to use it. * Proceeding of SARE3 The proceedings of SARE3 (the Third Workshop on Simulating Accelerator Radiation Environments) was published from KEK as KEK Proceedings 97.5. It can be requested from Hideo Hirayama . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from LNF Adolfo Esposito --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On Sunday, September 28, at 10:40 p.m. the first electron beam was injected into the electron ring of the DAFNE collider. During a 10-day shift starting on September 18, the electron beam was extracted for the first time from the Accumulator. After reaching 100% efficiency extraction and stable operation in the damping ring, the beam was driven through the Transfer Line up to the pulsed magnets which allow the passage of the beam in both directions through the same vacuum vessel. Commissioning of these special magnets was completed rapidly and successfully. The beam was then transported along the ~70 m long channel up to a fluorescent screen target right at the entrance of the electron ring. After extracting the target, the beam was detected by means of beam position monitors along the first quadrant of the ring. [Image] Figure 1 shows the beam [Image] Figure 2 shows the DAFNE signal on a "button" beam staff on shift during the position monitor inside DAFNE electron first injection into the Main Rings ring (from DAFNE logbook). celebrating event. On Saturday, October 4, some tens of revolutions of the first electron beam in the ring were observed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News from SLAC Mike Grissom --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On September 26, 1997, Burton Richter, SLAC Director sent the following note to the staff: I am pleased to inform you that the White House has nominated Arthur Bienenstock, Associate Director of SLAC, to the position of Associate Director for Science of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The OSTP advises the White House on policy and funding decisions regarding science and technology. Artie's nomination will be subject to approval by the Senate. Artie is a scientist with an exceptionally broad view of science, its importance to the nation, and of how it is translated by industry to benefit society. We recognize that while Artie's nomination is a loss to our lab, it is also a gain for the nation. We hope for a speedy confirmation and wish Artie all the best in his new position. Keith Hodgson, who has been Deputy Associate Director of the Synchrotron Division, will take over immediately as Acting Associate Director for the Division. A search process for a person to replace Artie will begin in consultation with senior members of the SSRL faculty, the Dean of Research and others. Burton Richter NOTE: CV and photos are available via SLAC Web Announcements: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/announce/index.html The press release is available electronically at: http://www.stanford.edu/news/ Artie Bienenstock has been the Director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) since January, 1978. The activities conducted at SSRL are well known to many in the accelerator health physics community since SSRL was one of the very first light sources to be actively involved in materials sciences research. Indeed, much of Artie's professional physics life has been in the materials sciences area. Those who are interested in details regarding SSRL may find the contents at the following Web URL useful: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/welcome.html Artie will take a tremendous amount of insight regarding the difficulties faced by the US national accelerator users' facilities into the White House. His input to the OSTP process, and the feedback/input he receives during his tenure (Senate confirmation is expected) should prove of great value to at least the US accelerator community, and perhaps to the world-wide accelerator community as well as the process of internationalizing accelerator projects continues. Those of us at SLAC wish Artie great success in his new endeavor. He has been a solid resource as the Director of SSRL for the last several years and leaves an extra big set of "shoes" for the next SSRL Director to fill. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Job Announcement from SLAC --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stanford Linear Accelerator Center 2575 Sandhill Road Menlo Park CA 94025 Attention: Mr. Lawrence Peckler M/S 11 650-926-2733 Description: Head, Operational Health Physics Department. The person in this position reports to the Associate Director for Environment, Safety and Health and is responsible for planning, directing and managing the Operational Health Physics (OHP) Department; including radiological surveys, radioactive material handling and control, dosimetry, and administrative support. Also, the Department Head is responsible for ensuring that the radiological protection program is managed in accordance with the established SLAC policies and that health physics services are provided to the SLAC staff. These services include radiological surveys, establishing radiological work controls, surveying and controlling radioactive material including sealed sources, personnel and area dosimetry, environmental radiation monitoring, and the radioanalysis laboratory. Responsibilities include planning and administering a $1.5 million budget and supervising a staff of 23 Health Physicists and technicians, establishing radiological protection policies and controls, and interfacing with other Environment, Safety and Health Departments, other SLAC Divisions, DOE, and external regulators to ensure all SLAC operations are conducted within guidelines and regulations for radiological hazards. The Department Head will participate in radiological safety review committees, such as the ALARA Committee and Radiation Safety Committee; comment on new regulations and standards; and set goals and guidelines for improvements and research in health physics and radiation studies, including the use of the Radiation Calibration Facility. He or she will work within OHP and with the Radiation Physics Department to develop and improve radiation monitoring and instrumentation requirements. The successful candidate should have at least a M.S. in Health Physics or related field with health physics courses, and should have at least 10 years experience in operational health physics including at least 3 years of supervisory experience; at least five (5) years experience should be working with accelerator health physics. The candidate must have a thorough understanding of health physics instrumentation, dosimetry, and related technologies and must have experience building direct working relationships with external regulators, preferably with DOE regulations. He or she should be computer literate, have excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills, as well as outstanding administrative and organizational abilities. Certification by the American Board of Health Physics is preferred. Salary is negotiable. Applications must include a letter expressing interest and a current resume, including three references. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Workshop on Accelerator Operations '98 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Colleague, As accelerator operations professionals, we all face common problems that are unique to accelerator research facilities. Training, maintenance, safety, documentation, and control room operations are everyday issues that consume a huge portion of our day-to-day work. If you've ever wondered how other accelerator operations professionals deal with the same problems that you wrestle with every day, then you are not alone. There is much to be learned by gathering people, like you, who actually operate, manage, and maintain the machines of the small world-wide community of accelerator facilities. In May 1996 Jefferson Labs in Virginia hosted the first of this series of workshops. Feedback from participants shows that the first workshop was very successful: "This was a wonderful idea." "Excellent idea...thank you for finally putting one together" "Great workshop" "Overall a big success" "Made excellent contacts and shared a lot of information" "Topics were relevant and informative" "It was well organized...I would like to see it continue" The success of the first workshop suggested the usefulness of meeting periodically. Thus, the second in the series of Workshops on Accelerator Operations, WAO'98, will be hosted by TRIUMF from 18 - 22 May 1998. It will be held on the nearby campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Come and meet your peers, establish working relationships, and gain the knowledge that a free exchange of ideas can foster. Learn how today's technologies are being applied and explore where tomorrow's may take us. Enjoy the benefit and insight of shared experience and walk away with new ideas which will help shape your facility's future. This workshop presents a unique opportunity for everyone in the accelerator operations community. If you received this notice, or were interested enough to pick it up and read it, you would very likely benefit from attending. Also, if you know someone else who might be interested in attending but did not receive our mailing, make a copy of this letter and pass it along. Don't miss this opportunity to hear about the new approaches other facilities are taking. Learn about the successes (and failures) of new ideas and avoid problems which others have already solved. This is a chance to gain new perspectives and exchange technology with other facilities. Many other specialized groups have found such workshops to be extremely helpful and schedule them at regular intervals. As operations professionals we owe it to ourselves to take advantage of this same opportunity. Attendance is limited, please register early to guarantee your participation. You can register on-line (http://www.triumf.ca/wao98) , by mail, or by fax. If you have questions or comments concerning this workshop please contact the WAO'98 workshop secretary, Fred Bach Operations Coordinator - TRIUMF 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver British Columbia, CANADA V6T 2A3 email : wao98@triumf.ca or music@triumf.ca --------------------------------------------------------------------------- HOW TO SUBSCRIBE / UPDATE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- To add yourself to the mailing list for the IARPE Newsletter, send an e-mail message to listserv@slac.stanford.edu The body of your message should contain the following command: subscribe iarpe-l Please don't forget to update your e-mail address if you move, change jobs or just change your computing environment. The update consists in canceling the old by 'unsubscribe' and submitting a new subscription, as illustrated below: unsubscribe iarpe-l your_old_email_address subscribe iarpe-l end If the body of your message, as in this example, contains more than a single line/command, it is good practice to finish with the 'end' command, especially if your mailer adds a signature. If you experience problems with subscribing/updating, please send me an e-mail to schwahn@jlab.org and I will do it for you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Closing Thought --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "To the engineer, all matter in the universe can be placed into one of two categories: (1) things that need to be fixed, and (2) things that will need to be fixed after you've had a few minutes to play with them. Engineers like to solve problems. If there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems. Normal people don't understand this concept; they believe that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet. "No engineer looks at a television remote control without wondering what it would take to turn it into a stun gun. No engineer can take a shower without wondering if some sort of Teflon coating would make showering unnecessary. To the engineer, the world is a toy box full of sub-optimized and feature-poor toys." Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle,United Features Syndicate, Inc., 1996.