Fermilab is making significant progress with respect to the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) project. This new effort consists of the design, construction, and operation of a neutrino beam which will be used to study neutrino oscillations. Such oscillations, if discovered, will mean that neutrinos, long thought to be massless, actually have a small non-zero mass. The scientific implications of such a discovery are immense in nuclear physics and particle physics as well as in cosmology. The neutrinos will be produced as a result of the targeting of an intense beam of 120 GeV protons produced by the new Fermilab Main Injector. These neutrinos will be studied by two experiments. One is a short baseline experiment housed entirely on the Fermilab site while the other consists of two detectors: one located on the Fermilab site and the other housed in the decommissioned iron mine in northeastern Minnesota known as the Soudan Underground Laboratory.
This project has a number of interesting radiological problems which are presently being studied very carefully at Fermilab. The beam intensities are very large, approximately 2 E13 protons per second. The result will be the creation of highly radioactive beam focusing components which must be maintained. Groundwater protection issues are very important as most of the beam components are located deep underground. Airborne radioactivity issues are non trivial and are just now beginning to be addressed. Above ground issues with respect to prompt radiation are minimized due to the fact that the entire beam line is pitched downward by 3.3 degrees in order to result in neutrinos being direct toward Minnesota. This results in the downstream end of the beamline being more than 200 feet underground.
The environmental protection issues have been successfully addressed in concept in an Environmental Assessment which resulted in a so-called "Finding of No Significant Impact". The detailed design effort is just now beginning and will continue to challenge us for some time. The occupational protection issues are being addressed in connection with a safety assessment document that is presently under preparation.
A review was recently held of the controls set in place for radiochemistry at the 10.5 MeV 3He++ Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Radiofrequency Quadrupole (RFQ) Accelerator at Fermilab. The first radiochemistry "run", irradiating gases and liquids, was in mid December. This review was to see if the controls, training and oversight were sufficient for such work. The controls were found to be adequate. The radiochemists have been given specialized training and have helped write an extensive ALARA plan for their work. Much of the oversight is performed by the PET Crew Chiefs who are specially trained to oversee the chemists' work. The accelerator has not been working very reliably and thus the chemists doses to date are quite low. The hopes are to get more beam on the chemists' targets and thus the chemists' doses will increase.
[Next Section]
Problems? Contact page owner
[Previous Section]
[Back to Top]