LANSCE radiation security system (RSS)

The Radiation Security System (RSS) is an engineered safety system which automatically terminates transmission of accelerated ion beams in response to pre-defined abnormal conditions. It is one of the four major mechanisms used to protect people from radiation hazards induced by accelerated pulsed ion beams at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). The others are shielding, administrative policies and procedures, and qualified, trained personnel. Prompt radiation hazards at the half-mile long LANSCE accelerator exist due to average beam intensities ranging from 1 milli-amp for H+ beam to 100 micro-amps for the high intensity H- beam. Experimental programs are supplied with variable energy (maximum 800 MeV), pulse-width (maximum 1 msec), and pulse frequency (maximum 120 Hz) ion beams. The RSS includes personnel access control systems, beam spill monitoring systems, and beam current level limiting systems. It is a stand-alone system with redundant logic chains. A fault of the RSS will cause the insertion of fusible beam plugs in the accelerator low energy beam transport. The design philosophy, description, and operation of the RSS are described in this paper