In early August, the Siemens motor-generator used to power the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) main magnets failed, resulting in catastrophic damage to the stator windings. This happened right before the slow-beam program (high-intensity protons) commenced. The Siemens motor-generator set is needed to ramp the AGS magnet voltage and current during proton operations. Operation with ion beams requires much smaller currents and voltages. AGS ring magnets were switched over to the Westinghouse motor-generator, which has only 40% of the capacity of the Siemens motor-generator. Management decided that it was still possible to operate the AGS main magnets for proton acceleration and extraction, albeit at a reduced rate of current ramping and beam extraction. The end result is that the Collider-Accelerator Department continues to operate RHIC as the priority, and when beam stores of sufficient quality have been achieved, realign (or "mode switch") the radiofrequency systems for several hours of proton operations for the fixed target program.
On a different note, the Region 1 Radiological Assistance Program (RAP) team deployed one day after the World Trade Center attack. We deployed at the request of the New York City Department of Health. The initial concern was for the dispersal of the supposed depleted uranium carried by the commercial airplanes that struck the towers. The main concern, however, was for a suspected industrial source that may have been in the World Trade Center at the time of the attack. I say "supposed" because the State of New York was able to confirm that no licensed sources were in the buildings, but they couldn't confirm that there were no other sources in use. Some parts of the World Trade Center were reported to us as having been undergoing significant maintenance.
I deployed with the first team to establish a fixed-point monitoring station to survey the trucks carrying debris out of ground zero. The surveys were very cursory since we could only put a meter on the truck when it slowed down at an egress control point several blocks from ground zero. The monitoring gave way to periodic boundary surveys of ground zero. To date, nothing above background has been found at ground zero or in the trucks carting away the debris.
I have learned a lot in the last few days about how fast misinformation can be spread by well-intentioned persons through the use of computers and computer e-mail lists. What we saw and heard at ground zero was not always in accord with what was being reported by the news networks. Just recently, four days after a team of very qualified radiological control technicians, certified health physicists, and radiological emergency management professionals were deployed to New York City, a coworker of mine forwarded an e-mail to me he had received from the Radsafe listing. This is what the author wrote:
"The authorities are now concerned about the possibility of medical and dental sources in the wreckage of the World Trade Center. Has anyone heard anything more? Are there any health physicists working the site? This is a valid concern, certainly much more so than depleted uranium counterweights."
The fact of the matter is that there was and continues to be no concern over medical and dental sources in the debris pile, and there was a team of five radiological control staff at the site one day after the event. I was never interviewed by ABC, NBC, or CBS, nor were any of my staff. The lack of such public information doesn't mean we weren't there.
We need to be careful in asking questions of those who may not have current knowledge of incidents such as these. I doubt very much whether many radiological professionals outside of the Brookhaven National Lab-U.S. Department of Energy chain-of-command would have known that the RAP team had been deployed one day after the disaster. Almost everybody we talked to at the scene didn't know who we were or what we were doing. Rather than broadcasting concerns and questions to those not directly involved in such an emergency, I think it best to seek that information through more reliable channels.