Linac Sets Record for World's Highest Energy Proton Beam, Hosts Meeting
RRW speaks to opening session of Proton Linear Accelerator Conference. Photos by Tony Frelo, NAL
NAL was host last week for the 1970 Proton Linear Accelerator Conference with approximately 150 scientists and engineers in attendance from leading physics research institutions in the world. About 40 members of NAL also participated.
The five-day conference included the presentation of nearly two score papers covering a number of technical subjects including: (a) Status of New Proton Linacs; (b) Beam Diagnostic Measurements; (c) Operating Proton Linacs; (d) Superconductivity and RF Structures; (e) Controls; (f) Electrical Engineering; (g) Mechanical Engineering; (h) Beam Dynamics; (i) Heavy-Ion Electron Accelerators; (j) Ion Sources and Pre-accelerators; and (k) Beam Transport and Diagnostic Methods.
Among NAL staff members who were authors of papers presented were Donald Young, head of the Linac section; Robert W. Goodwin, Edward R. Gray, Glenn M. Lee, Michael F. Shea, Cyril D. Curtis, Curtis W. Owen, Donald I. Mendenhall, Russell A. Winje, Hong C. Lau, Anthony R. Donaldson, Maxwell Palmer, Frank J. Mallie, Lawrence J. Sobocki, Arthur E. Skraboly, John E. O'Meara, Edward L. Hubbard, Wilmer C. Martin, Gianmaria Michelassi, Robert E. Peters, Frank M. Krzich, Reid K. Rihel, Elton W. Anderson, Frank L. Mehring, James D. Hogan, Miguel Awschalom, Peter J. Gollon and Fred Hornstra, Jr.
John M. Dickson, who recently returned to Rutherford High Energy Laboratory in England from NAL, also joined in preparing a paper on the initial performance of the 66-MeV portion of the NAL 200-MeV Linac although he was not able to be present in person.
The conference sessions took place in the Village Barn. It was the first major international technical conference held at NAL. A site tour was conducted for the visitors by NAL's Thomas L. Collins and Francis T. Cole.
At the opening session, held Monday morning, September 28, Robert R. Wilson, NAL Director, greeted the conferees. He told the group that "we are proud of our Linac group: for their many accomplishments, and noted that the Linac section was the first to establish offices and laboratories on the 6,800-acre site. "They were the first to move into our NAL Village and the first section to leave it for the Main Site," Dr. Wilson pointed out.
Dr. Wilson also made the announcement that the Linac section had achieved the goal of accelerating a proton beam through the first six tanks of the Linac to an energy of 139-MeV - - - thus laying claim to NAL being the home of the world's highest energy proton linear accelerator.
Dr. M. Stanley Livingston, former Associate Director of NAL, returned from his Santa Fe, New Mexico retirement home to attend the meetings and to serve as Chairman for the session of Ion Sources and Pre-accelerators.
Participants included representatives of the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratory, Canada; CERN; Cornell University; the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany; the University of Heidelberg, Germany; Lawrence Radiation Laboratory; Los Almos Scientific Laboratory; Central Engineering, Minneapolis; the National Bureau of Standards; the National Science Foundation; Argonne National Laboratory; SLAC; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Institute de Physique Nucleaire, Orsay, France; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Institut fur Experimentelle Kernphysik, Karlsruhe, West Germany; the University of Tokyo; Indiana University; Physical Sciences Laboratory, Stoughton, Wisconsin; University of Massachusetts; Stanford University; University of Rennes, France; the University of Lyon, France; C.E.A.-Saclay, France and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C. and Batavia, Illinois.
Commenting on the conference at NAL, Don Young stated, "I was pleased that the Laboratory was able to serve as a host to this important technical conference even as we are preparing to enter the final stages of the construction period. Considerable in terest in the progress of our Linac section was exhibited by our many distinguished visitors. There was a good and intensive exchange of ideas among the physicists and engineers in attendance and this only can mean a better understanding of the complex technology of Proton Linear Accelerators. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank the many men and women at NAL who helped to make this conference both interesting and meaningful."
The next Proton Linear Accelerator Conference will be held in two years. The location has not yet been chosen.