Tevatron: Day of Doom

Sep 30, 2011 09:00

The final store is now circulating in the Tevatron. At breakfast, it was just below 100E30 luminosity units (per square centimeter per second ( Read more... )

physics, tevatron, fermilab, accelerators

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beamjockey September 30 2011, 15:54:42 UTC
It varies, but generally only components in direct contact with the beam show measurable residual radioactivity, not tunnel walls or floor. For (at a guess) 99% of the components in the ring, the amount is mild.

In limited areas, components have a somewhat higher level of activity and might need special attention in planning their removal.

Everyone who enters the tunnels has suitable training and dosimetry equipment or, in rare cases such as film crews or touring ambassadors, is accompanied by a qualified radiation worker.

Tevatron components will for the most part be left in place for more than a year, after which their radioactivity will be considerably lower. Activity is dominated by relatively short-lived isotopes.

The Director is talking about opening detector halls and a portion of the tunnel to public tours at some point in the future. Radioactivity in these halls and tunnels is already quite low, and before the public was invited in, Fermilab staff would measure and document activity to confirm that it was within allowable limits.

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mbumby September 30 2011, 17:10:30 UTC
I've been hearing about the planned tours for a while. If there were a special tour that would have a bunch of my favorite people attending, I might be more interested in attending that than a generic one...

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neowolf2 October 1 2011, 11:58:31 UTC
I bet the targets in fixed target experiments get a lot more activation.

Fun fact learned while browsing the FNAL web site: the LSND experiment at Los Alamos put nearly a gram of 800 MeV protons into its target during its run. I imagine the high intensity plans you all have will go even higher.

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