[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Colloquium today at 14:00

[TRIUMF Seminars]

Date/Time: Tue 2013-09-24 at 14:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Carol Johnstone (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)

Title:     Future Accelerators, from Green Energy to Cancer Therapy

Abstract: Accelerators play an important and rapidly expanding role in society, clean energy, medicine, national security, material science, and environmental solutions. Accelerators can drive safer nuclear reactors, burn nuclear waste, produce critical radiopharmaceuticals, and treat cancer - proton and ion accelerators have been called the “sharpest scalpel” in the fight against cancer. The largest use of accelerators is in the area of healthcare, with tens of millions of patients relying on accelerator-based diagnoses and treatment every year. In total accelerators represent a 500 billion dollar industry.

The cyclotron is the current industrial and medical standard - with continuous beam output, constant rather than pulsed magnetic components, fixed frequency or conventional accelerating systems, compact footprints, and essentially turnkey operation. A number of advanced applications employ synchrotrons, which produce pulsed beams at low duty cycles and with significant operational overhead.  However, the accelerators used are largely based on rather old technology limiting their deployment in critical areas. A new innovation in fixed-field accelerators, broadly termed the ns-FFAG (Fixed Field Alternating Gradient) and often considered a powerful enhancement of the cyclotron, is under international development - with the U.K. presently leading the initiative.  This talk will touch on the highlights of the most important and coming accelerator innovations both in research and those that directly benefit society with specific attention to their role in medicine, advanced cancer treatment, and the future of nuclear energy.


Stimulants available 15 minutes before the talk.

______________________________

General TRIUMF seminar information available at http://www.triumf.ca/home/upcoming-events/about-seminars-lectures