Accelerating Radiation Science at CERN

Dr. Anthony Waker and his postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gloria Orchard had the rare opportunity to visit and perform experimental measurements at the CERN facility.  CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Science) is located in Geneva, Switzerland and spans the border into France.  It houses several accelerators including the world’s largest accelerator – the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).  

The CERF (The CERN-EU high energy Reference Field) facility is located in Prévessin, France and is one of the many ongoing experimental facilities at CERN.  The CERF facility was designed to simulate the neutron fields encountered by commercial flights at altitudes of 10 to 20 km due to cosmic rays interacting with the atmosphere.  In October of 2015, Drs. Waker and Orchard conducted measurements at the CERF facility with a number of radiation detectors. Four different detectors known as tissue equivalent proportional counters (TEPCs), one commercially available and three designed and developed by Dr. Waker, were tested using the radiation fields at CERF to observe and compare their performance and to provide TEPC data at specified locations to CERN staff.  The results obtained by Drs. Waker and Orchard will be combined with measurements conducted by other researchers using different detectors to assess our overall ability to monitor accurately the exotic radiation environment encountered at high altitude.

The collaboration between UOIT and CERN is ongoing and Drs. Waker and Orchard hope to conduct additional research at the CERF facility in the future as their work on advanced detector development continues.