Construction of the Diamond synchrotron building in the UK is nearly complete and commissioning is due to begin next year, starting with the linac gun in February. The booster, storage ring, and initial complement of eight beamlines will be commissioned throughout 2005 and 2006, and these should be available to users from early 2007. The facility will comprise a 3-GeV booster and storage ring fed by a 100-MeV linac. The initial beamlines will be used for research in macromolecular crystallography, nanoscience, extreme conditions, magnetism and materials, and microfocus spectroscopy.
On the radiation safety side, testing of the installed radiation monitors has been completed and specification of portable monitors is in progress. With the imminent start of commissioning in mind, the coming month will see the development of a radiation safety training course for contractors, as hutches will be under construction on site whilst commissioning is in progress. Work is also in progress on designation of areas and arrangements for personnel dosimetry. Diamond will be working to a dose limit for all staff of 1 mSv per year and the intention is to have very few classified workers.
The health physics group now has four members: Roy Ryder, Paul Bonner, Frances Burge, and Lloyd Collier. We expect the next couple of years to be extremely busy, as in addition to the commissioning of the Phase 1 beamlines we will be starting work on the shielding requirements of the next set of beamlines, which will be available to users from 2008.
Paul Bonner and Frances Burge represented Diamond at the Radsynch04 Workshop hosted by SPring8 in November. Paul presented a progress report including details of shielding calculations for Bremsstrahlung and synchrotron radiation on the initial eight beamlines. This presentation along with all the others from the workshop will be published on the Radsynch website later in the year.