Classification of radiological objects at the exit of accelerators with a dose-rate constraint.

Maintenance activities and operations of high-energy particle accelerators can lead to the collection of radioactive equipment as well as waste materials. In order to ensure their proper classification as radioactive or non-radioactive, one has to quantify the activities of radionuclides produced. According to the regulatory requirements in Switzerland, these activities need to be compared with nuclide-specific clearance limits. In particular, a new set of clearance limits was introduced by the Swiss authorities in January 2018, leading to more conservative values for a number of relevant radionuclides. We describe in this paper a new methodology based on dose-rate measurements to classify potentially radioactive objects at the exit of the CERN accelerator complex. This methodology concerns the specific material compositions typically found at CERN and takes into account the latest clearance limits introduced by the Swiss authorities.

INTEGRATED OPERATIONAL DOSIMETRY SYSTEM AT CERN.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, upgraded its operational dosimetry system in March 2013 to be prepared for the first Long Shutdown of CERN's facilities. The new system allows the immediate and automatic checking and recording of the dosimetry data before and after interventions in radiation areas. To facilitate the analysis of the data in context of CERN's approach to As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA), this new system is interfaced to the Intervention Management Planning and Coordination Tool (IMPACT). IMPACT is a web-based application widely used in all CERN's accelerators and their associated technical infrastructures for the planning, the coordination and the approval of interventions (work permit principle). The coupling of the operational dosimetry database with the IMPACT repository allows a direct and almost immediate comparison of the actual dose with the estimations, in addition to enabling the configuration of alarm levels in the dosemeter in function of the intervention to be performed.

High performance CCD camera system for digitalisation of 2D DIGE gels.

An essential step in 2D DIGE-based analysis of differential proteome profiles is the accurate and sensitive digitalisation of 2D DIGE gels. The performance progress of commercially available charge-coupled device (CCD) camera-based systems combined with light emitting diodes (LED) opens up a new possibility for this type of digitalisation. Here, we assessed the performance of a CCD camera system (Intas Advanced 2D Imager) as alternative to a traditionally employed, high-end laser scanner system (Typhoon 9400) for digitalisation of differential protein profiles from three different environmental bacteria. Overall, the performance of the CCD camera system was comparable to the laser scanner, as evident from very similar protein abundance changes (irrespective of spot position and volume), as well as from linear range and limit of detection.

Induced radioactivity in and around high-energy particle accelerators.

Particle accelerators and their surroundings are locations of residual radioactivity production that is induced by the interaction of high-energy particles with matter. This paper gives an overview of the principles of activation caused at proton accelerators, which are the main machines operated at Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire. It describes the parameters defining radio-nuclide production caused by beam losses. The second part of the paper concentrates on the analytic calculation of activation and the Monte Carlo approach as it is implemented in the FLUKA code. Techniques used to obtain, on the one hand, estimates of radioactivity in Becquerel and, on the other hand, residual dose rates caused by the activated material are discussed. The last part of the paper focuses on experiments that allow for benchmarking FLUKA activation calculations and on simulations used to predict activation in and around high-energy proton machines. In that respect, the paper addresses the residual dose rate that will be induced by proton-proton collisions at an energy of two times 7 TeV in and around the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector. Besides activation of solid materials, the air activation expected in the CMS cavern caused by this beam operation is also discussed.