Spallation Neutron Source Now Operating ‘Reasonably Well’
NS&D Monitor
5/29/2015
While the Spallation Neutron Source has had some rocky times over the past year, including a period last fall in which two target vessels failed prematurely back to back, in a more reason status report, operations chief Kevin Jones – who directs the accelerator division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory – said the system is operating “reasonably well” with power levels exceeding one megawatt. He also reported that the research instruments, which use highly concentrated streams of neutrons for material experiments, were performing as intended. “All instruments are running well, and we are looking forward to hosting the Joint Neutron and X-Ray Scattering School during the last week in June,” Jones said in response to questions. “We will turn off (the power system) at the end of June for our six-week summer outage, which will be very busy.”
Jones said the stainless-steel target vessel that’s currently installed at the SNS is operating well at higher power levels. ““We’ve just exceeded half of the maximum possible energy exposure for this target,” he said. The target vessel contains tons of mercury, which flows through the container and provides a neutron-rich target for a high-power proton beam – which strikes the nose of the vessel many times a second, each time “spalling” trillions of neutrons from the mercury source. The neutrons are diverted and funneled to the research instruments stationed around the target complex.
Jones said the accelerator was performing OK, not great. “We’ve had a few more equipment failures than normal in the last month so availability since we resumed operation (in April) has dropped from 93.5% to about 91.5%,” he said. The current plan is to operate the system at 1.2 megawatts and then raise the power slowly to 1.3 MW or a little higher, the official said.
Cytogenetic Laboratory Names New Director
NS&D Monitor
5/29/2015
Adayabalam Balajee has been named the new director of the Department of Energy’s Cytogenetic Biodosimetry Laboratory, which is part of the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site in Oak Ridge. Balajee previously worked at the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. He holds a doctorate degree with a specialization in cytogenetics and molecular biology from Banaras Hindu University in India.
The laboratory is able to evaluate blood samples from individuals who’ve been exposed to significant amounts of uranium, looking at the chromosome damage and how the pieces of chromosomes reform to confirm the actual radiation dose. That information, in turn, can be used to determine medical treatments and prognosis. The Oak Ridge laboratory is reportedly one of only two in the United States that can use chromosome abnormality to provide an assessment of radiation dose. The lab is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
