Folks trying to keep a Maker’ down! – “Albert Swank Jr., a 55-year-old civil engineer in Anchorage, Alaska, is a man with a mission. He wants to install a nuclear particle accelerator in his home. But when neighbors learned of plans to place the 20-ton device inside the house where Swank operates his engineering firm, their response was swift: Not in my backyard. Local lawmakers rushed to introduce emergency legislation banning the use of cyclotrons in home businesses. State health officials took similar steps, and have suspended Swank’s permit to operate cyclotrons on his property.” [via] Link.
10 thoughts on “The Cyclotron Comes to the ‘Hood”
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Just running the cyclotron shouldn’t cause too many problems. Doesn’t he need to bombard a fairly rare “target” to produce anything dangerous ?
Just running the cyclotron shouldn’t cause too many problems. Doesn’t he need to bombard a fairly rare “target” to produce anything dangerous ?
Al Swank is a very intellegent, careful man. For him to put a cyclotron in his garage or on his property would be harmless to the community. He is trying to do a good thing for medicine and victims of cancer. The people who are fighting this clearly do not know what they are talking about. The people who know about this technology say it is safe, but the people who don’t know anything say it is dangerous, and say it loudly.
The safety of the cyclotron installation depends on its uses. The basic unit can be shielded with concrete walls to safely contain the beam, and ancillary X-Rays, but if it is used for the regular production of medical isotopes, then I would question the wisdom of locating it in a strictly residential neighborhood. Isotope production would likely be better off in an industrially zoned facility, with appropriate filtration on the air exhausts, etc. “Hot Isotopes” can be routinely handled in a safe and healthy manner, but if the user is percieved to be threatening other people’s families through carelessness or arrogance, then the hazard comes from angry parents, not ionizing radiation.
First rule of Cyclotron Club:
You don’t talk about Cyclotron Club.