Radiation Protection Group: Annual Report 2003

The RP Annual Report summarises the activities carried out by CERN’s Radiation Protection Group in the year 2003. It includes contribution from the EN section of the TIS/IE Group on environmental monitoring. Chapter 1 reports on the measurements and estimations of the impact on the environment and public exposure due to the Organisation’s activities. Chapter 2 provides the results of the monitoring of CERN’s staff, users and contractors to occupational exposure. Chapter 3 deals with operational radiation protection around the accelerators and in the experimental areas. Chapter 4 reports on RP design studies for the LHC and CNGS projects. Chapter 5 addresses the various services provided by the RP Group to other Groups and Divisions at CERN, which include managing radioactive waste, high-level dosimetry, lending radioactive test sources and shipping radioactive materials. Chapter 6 describes activities other than the routine and service tasks, i.e. development work in the field of instrumentation and research and support activities for future CERN projects or in RP-related domains

Narrow beam dosimetry for high-energy hadrons and electrons

Organ doses and effective dose were calculated with the latest version of the Monte Carlo transport code FLUKA in the case of an anthropomorphic mathematical model exposed to monoenergetic narrow beams of protons, pions and electrons in the energy range 10°— 400 GeV. The target organs considered were right eye, thyroid, thymus, lung and breast. Simple scaling laws to the calculated values are given. The present data and formula should prove useful for dosimetric estimations in case of accidental exposures to high-energy beams

RaDoM2: an improved radon dosimeter

A new dosimeter for radon progeny called RaDoM (Radon Dose Monitor) was recently developed at CERN . RaDoM is an active detector able to directly estimate the effective dose due to the radon progeny. The first version, which used the Timepix hybrid pixel detector, a system of filters and a pump, correctly assessed the effective dose in situations where the environmental conditions are characterized by a standard equilibrium factor, but showed low efficiency for low radon concentrations and in clean air environments. In this improved version, RaDoM2, the Timepix has been replaced by a silicon pin diode. This solution has allowed the optimization of the geometry, the pump flow rate and the associated electronics, improving the performance of RaDoM and substantially reducing its manufacturing costs. This paper describes the RaDoM2, its improved performance compared to RaDoM, the cloud and user interface, tests in a radon chamber and on-the-field measurementsPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Study of Energy Deposition and Activation for the LINAC4 Dump

This document provides estimates of energy deposition and activation for the dump of the future LINAC4 accelerator. Detailed maps of power density deposited in the dump are given, allowing to perform further thermo mechanical studies. Residual dose rates at a few cooling times for different irradiation scenarios have been calculated. Moreover, the air activation has been evaluated and doses to the reference population group and to a worker intervening in the cave at the shutdown have been predicted. Calculations were performed with the Monte Carlo particle transport and interaction code FLUKA

Site Layout of the proposed new Hadrons' Injector Chain at CERN

The replacement of almost all the LHC injector complex on the Meyrin-site of CERN (Linac2, PSB and PS) is planned within the next 10 years. The layout foreseen for the new accelerators is described in this paper, together with its compatibility with the existing experimental physics facilities. These machines can, after upgrade, supply with high beam power future physics facilities for radioactive ions and/or neutrinos. Their possible layout is also sketched in this document

High-energy quasi-monoenergetic neutron fields: existing facilities and future needs

The argument that well-characterised quasi-monoenergetic neutron (QMN) sources reaching into the energy domain >20 MeV are needed is presented. A brief overview of the existing facilities is given, and a list of key factors that an ideal QMN source for dosimetry and spectrometry should offer is presented. The authors conclude that all of the six QMN facilities currently in existence worldwide operate in sub-optimal conditions for dosimetry. The only currently available QMN facility in Europe capable of operating at energies >40 MeV, TSL in Uppsala, Sweden, is threatened with shutdown in the immediate future. One facility, NFS at GANIL, France, is currently under construction. NFS could deliver QMN beams up to about 30 MeV. It is, however, so far not clear if and when NFS will be able to offer QMN beams or operate with only so-called white neutron beams. It is likely that by 2016, QMN beams with energies >40 MeV will be available only in South Africa and Japan, with none in Europ