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J-PARC Project Newsletter
No. 53, January 2014
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under operation jointly by
the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and the Japan
Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
Q3 2013.
2. [Accelerator Division]
LINAC STARTED BEAM COMMISSIONING WITH NEWLY INSTALLED ANNULAR-RING
COUPLED STRUCTURE (ACS) SYSTEMS.
3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division]
THE OBSERVATION OF THE GOLD TARGET.
T2K STATUS: THE OBSERVATION OF ELECTRON NEUTRINO TRANSFORMATION, SUWA
AWARD TO J-PARC NEUTRINO BEAM GROUP, MAINTENANCE WORK.
CONSTRUCTION OF SUPER-CONDUCTING MAGNET SYSTEM FOR THE MU-E CONVERSION
SEARCH EXPERIMENT IS AT THE STARTING POINT.
PREPARATION OF A PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF MUON MAGNETIC AND ELECTRIC
DIPOLE MOMENTS IS IN PROGRESS.
THE 17TH PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING FOR NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE
PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS AT J-PARC WAS HELD.
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
PROTON BEAM WINDOW WAS REPLACED FOR THE FIRST TIME.
COMPONENTS OF MERCURY CIRCULATION LOOP HAD BEEN REPLACED TO MITIGATE
PITTING DAMAGE ON THE MERCURY TARGET MORE EFFECTIVELY.
SIXTY-SEVEN GENERAL NEUTRON PROPOSALS FOR SEVENTEEN INSTRUMENTS WERE
APPROVED FOR 2013B PERIOD.
CONSTRUCTING A NEW SURFACE MUON BEAMLINE CALLED THE S-LINE, AS A
DEDICATED BEAMLINE FOR THE MATERIAL SCIENCES.
5. [Exotic Nuclear Science Group]
THE 12TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ORIGIN OF MATTER AND EVOLUTION OF
GAXIES (OMEG12) WAS HELD.
KEK ISOTOPE SEPARATION SYSTEM (KISS) GOES TO FIND RADIOACTIVITIES OF
NEUTRON-RICH NUCLIDES PRODUCED VIA THE TRANSFER REACTIONS OF HEAVY
REACTION SYSTEMS.
6. [Nuclear Transmutation Section]
NATIONAL REVIEW: MOVE FORWARD TOWARD THE NEXT STAGE OF TEF R&D.
7. [Safety Division]
THE 16TH & 17TH RADIATION SAFETY COMMITTEES OF J-PARC MET IN OCTOBER.
APPLICATION FOR LICENSES OF THE OPERATION WAS GRANTED BY THE NUCLEAR
REGULATION AUTHORITY (NRA).
THE SAFETY INSPECTION OF NEW RFQ AT LINAC WERE SUCCESSFULLY，CONDUCTED
BY THE NUCLEAR SAFETY TECHNOLOGY CENTER (NUSTEC).
8. [Editorial Note]
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1. [Overview] by Yujiro IKEDA
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Q3 2013
More than 7 months have passed since the radiation material leak
accident at the Hadron Experimental Facility (hereafter the Hadron
accident).
This period was a very tough time for us. However, I think, we were
just able to reach a key stage to resume the user operations at the
Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (i.e., MLF). I would
like to express my deepest appreciation to not only staff members of
J-PARC but also everyone who supported our activities to enhance the
safety in J-PARC. There will be several issues that we have to
overcome, but a prospect for resuming operations becomes clear now.
Here are milestones so far we had in the 2013 Q3 period.
1. The report on preventive measures against a reoccurrence of a
similar accident was submitted to the minister of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on September 26, 2013. In this
report we summarized all actions that we have taken and will take to
recover the confidence from the society as well as science/user
communities and to enhance the safety at J-PARC, along with JAEA and
KEK.
2. On October 1, a reorganization of the J-PARC center,
particularly from a safety point of view, was implemented. The
reorganization includes creation of a new deputy director position to
take full-time responsibility for all aspects of safety throughout
J-PARC and establishment of two new sections (i.e., Neutrino and
Hadron) under the Particle and Nuclear Physics Division.
3. On November 1, 2013, the revised "J-PARC radiation protection
rules" have become effective. According to this revision reporting,
procedures of emergency situations, and all operation manuals were
also revised.
4. Ibaraki Prefecture organized an experts committee to assess
preventive measures against a reoccurrence of a similar accident,
which were developed by the J-PARC center. Based on the assessment,
the committee concluded that our measures were appropriate and
reported this conclusion to the governor of Ibaraki Prefecture at the
end of December. Accordingly, the governor agreed with our plan to
resume the user operations at MLF in February 2014.
5. Throughout the Q3 period, we tried our best to implement
preventive measures in J-PARC that were developed based on integration
of discussions at meetings of the task force team for renewing the
J-PARC center. The PDCA(Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle was maintained
efficiently, and ties among the team members was strengthened
significantly.
6. Whereas our original plan for the Q3 was to upgrade the linac
energy from 181 MeV to 400 MeV, we have completed installation of new
ACS cavities as planned, which was essential for the power upgrade
toward the J-PARC intensity goal of 1 MW. Furthermore we have started
testing the performance of newly installed components using a proton
beam since December 16, 2013.
7. Regarding the FY 2014 budget, we were unofficially notified
that the total budget might be ‾96 Oku Yen, which corresponded to 8.5
cycles of MLF user operations and much less than 8 cycles for the MR
operation that delivers beams to hadron and neutrino experiments.
As this budget cut is very serious to allocate requested beam times,
we will need a critical adjustment of the budget in order to maximize
the beam time.
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Tadashi KOSEKI
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LINAC STARTED BEAM COMMISSIONING WITH NEWLY INSTALLED ANNULAR-RING
COUPLED STRUCTURE (ACS) SYSTEMS
1. Linac
In order to achieve designed beam intensity of 1 MW at the Rapid
Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) and 0.75 MW at the Main Ring (MR), both an
energy increase and an intensity upgrade of the linac are definitively
required. During the shutdown period in 2013, a new accelerating
structure system, the ACS linac was installed to increase the beam
energy from 181 MeV to the full energy of 400 MeV. The ACS system has
21 accelerating modules, two bunchers and two debuncher modules. The
resonant frequency of the ACS is 972 MHz, three times higher than that
of the Separated-type Drift Tube Linac (SDTL) system. The two bunchers
are installed in the section between the SDTL and the ACS linac for
longitudinal matching. Two debunchers are installed in the Linac to 3
GeV Synchrotron Beam Transport (L3BT) section to decrease the energy
spread of the beam to less than the energy acceptance of the RCS. The
beam commissioning of the linac with the ACS system was started on
December 16th, 2013.
For the intensity upgrade, a cesium-seeded rf-driven negative
hydrogen ion source and a Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) linac for
the beam acceleration of designed peak current 50 mA are planned to be
installed in the 2014 summer shutdown period. The beam test of the new
ion source and RFQ is now in progress in a newly constructed test
stand to confirm the stability through long-term continuous beam
operation.
2. RCS
Due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, a large displacement of
the magnets, 10 mm peak-to-peak in maximum, increased beam loss in the
collimator section and the 1st arc section of the RCS. In the 2013
shutdown period, re-alignment of all of the RCS magnets and the rf
cavities was performed together with the magnets in the beam transport
lines from the RCS to the neutron target (3NBT) and to the MR (3-50BT).
All of the RCS magnets were re-aligned within error of +- 0.1 mm,
which is the same level just after the initial installation.
For the beam injection at 400 MeV, all of the power supply of the
four shift-bump magnets was replaced with newly-manufactured one in
the shutdown period. The new system has 16 capacitor banks in parallel
and generates a trapezoidal current pattern. The maximum output
current and output voltage are 32 kA and 14.4 kV, respectively, to
obtain fast rise and fall time of 150 microseconds. The beam
commissioning of the RCS for 400 MeV beam injection is planned to
start on January 25, 2014.
3. MR
The main subjects of the improvements performed in the shutdown
period are an upgrade of ring collimator system and replacement of a
part of the beam duct. Four additional collimator units and additional
iron shield walls were manufactured and transported to the J-PARC site
by the end of 2013. They will be installed in the downstream area of
the beam injection section of the MR by the end of February 2014 to
increase the beam loss capacity of the collimator system from the
present value of 2 kW to 3.5 kW. A part of the quadrupole and
sextupole beam ducts made of stainless steel were replaced with new
ones, which were made of titanium, to reduce residual radiation dose
for near future intensity upgrade. A total 105 ducts in the injection
straight section, half of the upstream ones at the first arc section,
and the horizontal dispersion peak positions of all the arc sections
were replaced.
4. Cause of malfunction of Extraction Quadrupole (EQ) power
supply and preventive measures
The accident of the radioactive material leakage at the Hadron
Experimental Facility (HD facility) was triggered by a malfunction of
EQ magnets for the MR slow extraction system. As a result of the
malfunction, 2e13 protons were extracted in a very short period of
five milliseconds, whereas 3e13 protons should have been slowly
extracted over two seconds in a normal operation. After the accident,
the J-PARC center has investigated the cause of the malfunction of EQ
magnets in cooperation with the manufacturer of the EQ power supply.
As a result of the investigation, it was identified that a primary
failure occurred in part of the data transmission system of the power
supply, not correctly transferring the input current value as follows:
The failure was resulted from voltage drop in a circuit board of the
voltage power supply that supplies a fixed voltage of 5V to a circuit
board of an interface that converts an external input signal. The EQ
power supply had been operated without a failure since 2009. However,
a circuit board of the relevant power supply was suffering aging
degradation due to insufficient preventive measures against
overheating in a three-terminal regulator and it led to the
malfunction this time.
To avoid having a recurrence of the aging degradation, we will change
the configuration of the circuit board of the power supply.
On the other hand, the most important point is to have sufficient
measures against malfunction of the system. The EQ system will be
improved as follows: 1) to stop the operation if anomalous current
deviation is detected, 2) to shorten the time of shutdown when
abnormality occurrence is detected, 3) to decrease the maximum setting
of the current value of the power supply from 340 A to 120 A, which is
sufficient for routine users operation.
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3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division] by K. OZAWA, T. TSUKAMOTO,
S. MIHARA, T. KOMATSUBARA
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THE OBSERVATION OF THE GOLD TARGET (by K. OZAWA)
The gold target at the Hadron Experimental Facility was observed
using a fiberscope on December 12 and 13. The purpose of the
observation was to see the present status of the target and know what
really occurred during the accident.
The fiberscope was inserted into the target chamber from the
downstream side. The target itself was observed for the first time
after the accident. We verified the damage of the target and the
influence on it.
Observed phenomena are consistent with our simulation results.
We confirmed that an accidental injection of large amount of protons
for a very short period (i.e. 5 micro sec.) raised the temperature of
the gold target, and the temperature partially exceeded the melting
and further vaporizing points. Then, the melted gold was pushed
outward due to a rapid volume expansion from vaporization of the
melted gold.
After the observation, radiation shields around the target were
set back to the normal position by the end of December 2013.
Now, we proceed to work on countermeasures. Details and photographs of
the target observation are found on the web page.
(http://j-parc.jp/en/topics/HDAccident20131217.pdf)
T2K STATUS: THE OBSERVATION OF ELECTRON NEUTRINO TRANSFORMATION, SUWA
AWARD TO J-PARC NEUTRINO BEAM GROUP, MAINTENANCE WORK
(by T. TSUKAMOTO)
The T2K collaboration announced definitive observations of muon
neutrino to electron neutrino transformation on July 19 at the 2013
European Physical Society conference on High Energy Physics in
Stockholm, Sweden (http://eps-hep2013.eu/), as reported by J-PARC
Project Newsletter Special Issue, July 2013. All collected data before
the summer shutdown was analyzed after the summer conference. A total
of 28 electron neutrino events were detected with an energy
distribution consistent with an appearance signal, corresponding to a
significance of 7.3 sigma when compared to 4.92+-0.55 expected
background events. It gives constraints on parameters such as mixing
angles, mass differences and CP phase. The result will be published in
Physical Review Letters.
(http://arxiv.org/abs/1311.4750)
This T2K discovery was selected as one of the top 100 science
stories of 2013. (http://j-parc.jp/en/topics/2013/top100-e.html)
The 17th J-PARC PAC meeting was held in September 2013.
(http://j-parc.jp/researcher/Hadron/en/PACmeeting_1309_e.html)
T2K status and future plans were presented at the meeting
(http://www.t2k.org/docs/pub/015) and the plan was strongly supported
by the PAC as shown in the minutes.
(http://j-parc.jp/researcher/Hadron/en/pac_1309/PAC17thMinutes_final_draft.pdf
)
The J-PARC neutrino beam group received the 2013 Suwa award in
recognition of their contribution to the development of High Energy
Accelerator Science by realizing the world's highest intensity
neutrino beam facility and the discovery of the "Electron Neutrino
Appearance Phenomenon". Information about this award:
http://www.heas.jp/award/jusyo.html (in Japanese)
http://www.heas.jp/award/hosyo-seitei.html (in Japanese)
http://j-parc.jp/en/topics/2013/SUWA_award131216.html (in English)
There are many maintenance items of the neutrino beam line
facility which were planned for the 2013 summer shutdown period. One
big maintenance work is the replacement of magnetic horns in the
target station (TS). Magnetic horns are operated with extremely high
pulsed current and that results in shortening of the horn lifetime due
to metal fatigue, and so they should be replaced with spares after a
few years operation. Three magnetic horns are equipped in TS. One horn
was replaced by the end of Dec. 2013 and the others will be replaced
by Apr. 2014.
CONSTRUCTION OF SUPER-CONDUCTING MAGNET SYSTEM FOR THE MU-E
CONVERSION SEARCH EXPERIMENT IS AT THE STARTING POINT. PREPARATION OF
A PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF MUON MAGNETIC AND ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENTS IS
IN PROGRESS (by S.MIHARA)
Mu-e conversion is a process in which the charged lepton in the
2nd generation (muon) converts to the charged lepton in the 1st
generation (electron) without emitting any neutral lepton (neutrino)
under the field of nucleus. The lepton-flavor number conservation is
violated in this process and thus it is strictly forbidden in the
standard model (SM).
The COherent Muon to Electron Transition (COMET) experiment aims at
searching for this phenomenon with a target sensitivity of 10^{-14} in
Phase I and 10^{-16} in Phase II by using the J-PARC high-power proton
beam. In this experiment, a long chain of super-conducting solenoid
magnets will be used to collect pions/muons and transport muons to the
experimental area. Construction of system components was successfully
started in 2013 and has continued in 2014. Detailed engineering design
of detector components is also in progress; detector construction will
be carried out in the framework of the international collaboration
comprising of about 130 researchers from 12 countries. Preparation of
the muon magnetic and electric dipole moments measurement is also in
progress.
Precise measurement of these properties of muons is considered to
be an important clue to investigate the physics beyond the SM.
Recently an innovative method to produce a muon beam with extremely
small emittance, which is an important ingredient of these
measurements, has been tested at TRIUMF. Further R&D using J-PARC muon
beam is anticipated in 2014.
COMET collaboration meeting was held in January 2014 at Kyushu
University. Muon g-2/EDM collaboration had a collaboration meeting at
KEK in December 2013. The COMET collaboration will have two
international review panels in January 2014: one for physics detector
and feasibility and the other for the magnet system.
A joint workshop of the silicon detector application for muon
physics will be held in France in February.
THE 17TH PROGRAM ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING FOR NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE
PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS AT J-PARC WAS HELD (by T. KOMATSUBARA)
From September 25(Wed) to 27(Fri), 2013, the 17th J-PARC Program
Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting was held at KEK Tsukuba Campus with
the participation of 12 committee members (10 members from outside
KEK, including six from abroad).
The PAC is the committee to evaluate and assess joint-usage
proposals for the experiments at the J-PARC Main Ring as well as
important issues to advance the research program. The committee is
chaired by Junji Haba, Professor of the KEK Institute of Particle and
Nuclear Studies (IPNS).
Following opening remarks by Masanori Yamauchi, Director of
KEK-IPNS, there were reports: 1) the status and plan of the
accelerator complex, 2) status of the experiments (the long-baseline
neutrino experiment as well as, in the Hadron Experimental Facility,
nuclear and hadron experiments at the K1.8 and K1.8BR beamlines and a
kaon decay experiment at the KL beamline), and 3) progress in the R&D
of experiments in preparation. Also one new proposal and two proposals
under consideration by the PAC were presented this time.
The committee commented on the reports and evaluated the
proposals, and summarized the outputs as the meeting minutes.
The draft, to be approved in the next PAC meeting from May 14
(Wed) to 16(Fri), 2014 is available on the web page.
http://j-parc.jp/researcher/Hadron/en/PAC_for_NuclPart_e.html
--> http://j-parc.jp/researcher/Hadron/en/PACmeeting_1309_e.html.
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Masatoshi ARAI
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PROTON BEAM WINDOW WAS REPLACED FOR THE FIRST TIME COMPONENTS OF
MERCURY CIRCULATION LOOP HAD BEEN REPLACED TO MITIGATE PITTING DAMAGE
ON THE MERCURY TARGET MORE EFFECTIVELY
1) Neutron Source
Various maintenances have been carried out during the long shut
down period: In the 3-GeV proton beam transport line, two octupole
magnets were newly installed to make the proton beam profile flatter
so that it could suppress the pressure wave generated in the mercury
target. All magnets and beam line components were realigned.
The proton beam window was replaced with a new one using remote
handling devices successfully for the first time. Installation of a
gas-liquid separator, replacement of a helium gas supplying device and
pressure gauges with a shielding box are underway at the mercury
circulation system to improve flow rate of gas-micro bubbles for
mitigating pitting damage on the mercury target vessel. A compact
accumulator having a bellows structure with enough pressure tightness
against the design pressure of 2 MPa was manufactured and installed
into the cryogenic hydrogen loop.
As for the spare components, fabrication of a coupled moderator
and a reflector has been started.
SIXTY-SEVEN GENERAL NEUTRON PROPOSALS FOR SEVENTEEN INSTRUMENTS WERE
APPROVED FOR 2013B PERIOD.
2) Neutron Instruments and Science
User operation for the 2013A period (the first half of FY2013)
was stopped on May 23 due to the accident in the Hadron Experimental
Facility. Then the general proposals for the next user operation
period between February and March, 2014 (2013B) was called for
seventeen instruments, and 247 proposals were submitted. Those
proposals were reviewed by the Neutron Science Proposal Review
Committee, and finally 67 general neutron proposals were approved by
the MLF advisory board. Due to the short available beam time, total
competition rate (requested/available beam time) is as high as 4.7
times.
CONSTRUCTING A NEW SURFACE MUON BEAMLINE CALLED THE S-LINE, AS A
DEDICATED BEAMLINE FOR THE MATERIAL SCIENCES
3) Muon Science Facility (MUSE)
We are constructing a new surface muon beamline, called the
S-Line, as a dedicated beamline for the material sciences. We are
planning to construct eventually four experimental areas, S1, S2, S3,
and S4 areas.
We are funded for the construction of the beamline to the S1 area
during this fiscal year. It consists of 1) a large acceptance
quadrupole triplet magnet made of mineral insulation cables (MIC) as a
front-end in the vicinity of the muon target, 2) four sets of normal
quadrupole triplet magnets and three bending magnets, and
3) an electrical kicker system, associated with a 250 kV DC separator.
Recently, we managed to complete installation of a four-story
power-supply station, two users cabins, a dedicated cat-walk, and
beamline shielding blocks. During the shut-down period until the
middle of February 2014, we are planning to complete the installation
of the key components of the S-Line for the beam commissioning in the
next summer.
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5. [Exotic Nuclear Science Group] by Hiroari MIYATAKE
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THE 12TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ORIGIN OF MATTER AND EVOLUTION OF
GAXIES (OMEG12) WAS HELD (by H.MIYATAKE)
OMEG12 was held on November 18-22, 2013 at the International
Congress Center, EPOCAL TSUKUBA. A hundred sixteen participants (from
15 countries) primarily in the field of physics, astronomy,
cosmochemistry, and geosciences got together to discuss the subjects
of nuclear astrophysics and related fields. There were two special
sessions relevant to the "nuclear physics in r-process" and "exotic
nuclear matter in neutron stars". Each of experiments in the KEK RNB
group and in the hadron group of J-PARC was presented in the session.
The public session entitled "The Cosmos and Element Genesis" was also
held during this meeting for both graduate and undergraduate students
by inviting the distinguished researchers, Prof. Alessandro Melchiorri
of the PLANCK collaboration and Prof. Grant J. Mathews of the Center
for Astrophysics at Notre Dame University.
OMEG12 was hosted by KEK and co-hosted by Center for Nuclear
Study, University of Tokyo (CNS), RIKEN Nishina Center (RNC), National
Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAO), Research Center for Nuclear
Physics, Osaka University (RCNP), Tsukuba University, Tohoku
University, Rare Isotope Science Project, Institute for Basic Science
(RISP,IBS, Korea), and China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE, China).
It was also supported by Grant-in-aid for scientific research on
innovative areas, "Nuclear matter in neutron stars investigated by
experiments and astronomical observations", and the Commemorative
Organization for the Japan World Exposition ('70).
The next meeting in 2015 will be held at CIAE, China.
KEK ISOTOPE SEPARATION SYSTEM (KISS) GOES TO FIND RADIOACTIVITIES OF
NEUTRON-RICH NUCLIDES PRODUCED VIA THE TRANSFER REACTIONS OF HEAVY
REACTION SYSTEMS (by H.MIYATAKE)
KISS is being constructed at RIKEN for measuring unknown
neutron-rich heavy radioactive isotopes with nuclear astrophysical
interest. This device consists of an argon gas-catcher cell, a laser
system for resonant ionization, and an electromagnetic mass separator.
Unknown radioactive isotopes produced by the transfer reaction stopped
in the gas cell and are ionized by the laser. Then ions of specific
elements are extracted and transported to the electromagnetic mass
separator followed by the detection system.
It has been developed from FY2011 and the performance has been
investigated with iron and xenon beams from accelerators of the RIKEN
Nishina center. After the beam test, reasonable extraction efficiency
of the gas cell was established for ions of resonant laser ionization
with good purity. As a next step, we will observe radioactivity as an
overall performance test of the KISS.
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6. [Nuclear Transmutation Section] by Toshinobu SASA
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NATIONAL REVIEW: MOVE FORWARD TOWARD THE NEXT STAGE OF TEF R&D
Last summer a national review committee for partitioning and
transmutation (P-T) studies using Accelerator-driven System (ADS) was
launched by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology in Japan (MEXT). The committee aimed at reviewing the
state-of-the-art P-T, feasibility of the construction of J-PARC
Transmutation Experimental Facility (TEF), and cost and benefit of
cooperation with the European MYRRHA project. Five meetings were held
during August to October, 2013 and an interim report was issued on the
website of MEXT in November, 2013.
The committee summarized the review and decided on a roadmap to
realize an ADS based P-T cycle. The committee agreed that the
preparation of a facility should be required to handle a certain
amount of minor actinides and the plan to establish facilities should
be continued. As for the construction of J-PARC TEF, a step from
current basic study stage to the next stage is noted as "suitable". It
is also noted, a detailed technical review should be held before
initiating construction. As for the participation in the MYRRHA
project, it is proper to start negotiations with Belgium on
comprehensive cooperation not only by JAEA but also by universities
and commercial sectors.
The committee continues the review work of P-T technology
including the status of the TEF project and negotiations concerning
the MYRRHA project.
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7. [Safety Division] by Tetsuro ISHII
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THE 16TH & 17TH RADIATION SAFETY COMMITTEES OF J-PARC MET IN OCTOBER
The 16th Radiation Safety Committee of J-PARC met on Oct. 3 and
discussed the alterative application of J-PARC facilities. The main
topics were the applications on the energy increase to 400 MeV at the
LINAC facility and the new secondary beam lines of muon and BL06 in
the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF).
The 17th Radiation Safety Committee of J-PARC met on Oct. 24 and
discussed the revised regulations on prevention from radiation
hazards, which reflects the reorganized structure of J-PARC Center and
the revised Laws Concerning the Prevention from Radiation Hazards with
activation products generated in accelerators.
The revised regulations contain the following items: 1) the
appointment of a new deputy director for the safety management, 2)
clarification of roles and responsibilities of a division head or a
section leader in emergency situations, 3) reorganization of
committees for radiation safety review, 4) reinforcement of education
and training, 5) definition of the procedure in abnormal condition,
6) clarification of criteria and procedures for report, and so on.
APPLICATION FOR LICENSES OF THE OPERATION WAS GRANTED BY THE NUCLEAR
REGULATION AUTHORITY (NRA)
The application for licenses of the operation of the whole
facility except the Hadron Experimental Facility was granted by NRA on
Dec. 6. The main topics were the energy increase to 400 MeV at the
LINAC facility and the new secondary beam lines of muon and BL06 in
MLF.
THE SAFETY INSPECTION OF NEW RFQ AT LINAC WERE SUCCESSFULLY,NDUCTED
BY THE NUCLEAR SAFETY TECHNOLOGY CENTER (NUSTEC)
The safety inspection was conducted by NUSTEC at the LINAC
facility on Dec. 12. The inspection item was the installation of the
test bench for the new Radio Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) in the LINAC
facility, which is designed to allow the higher current beam and will
be replaced in the accelerator tunnel.
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8. [Editorial Note]
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Editorial Board:
Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO (Chair): toshifumi.tsukamoto@kek.jp Kaoru
SHIBATA: shibata.kaoru@ jaea.go.jp
Takashi ITO: itou.takashi@jaea.go.jp
Dick MISCHKE (English Editor): mischke@triumf.ca
Junko BEANBLOSSOM (Secretary): beanblossom.junko@jaea.go.jp
++++++++++++++++End of Letter++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++