discovered_01_2013

discovered 01.13 Panorama WWW.Hzdr.DE New work group studies permanent repositories At the beginning of this year, the leading research institutes investigating permanent nuclear waste repositories founded DAEF, the German Permanent Repository Research Work Group. The group's director, Horst Geckeis of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), outlines the group's implicit goals as follows: "We want to use our results to advise the German federal government and the responsible federal and state agencies as well as the German federal parliament (the "Bundestag") and other interested institutions through position papers and statements. However, it is just as important to us to inform the general public about current trends and findings in permanent repository research." Three members of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers are founding members of the DAEF: the KIT, the Jülich Research Center, and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. Vinzenz Brendler of the HZDR's Institute of Resource Ecology considers making confidential data available to all those who are part of the decision-making process about future permanent repository sites an important part of his job. "For years, our commitment has been to a centralized chemical substance database, in which we enter verified research data generated both here at the HZDR and globally. Experts and lay persons alike can use this database to find out about the different ways in which radioactive elements in our environment behave, for example, in different rock formations like clay, granite, or salt." This is why the HZDR researchers are studying the types of chemical bonds the actinides uranium, plutonium, americium, or neptunium form with other rocks. Since these radioactive heavy metals play a central role in the nuclear fuel cycle, it is extremely important that scientists determine whether or not their bonds easily dissolve in water that may infiltrate a permanent repository. The new work group is committed to the education of future scientists in an effort to maintain and develop German competency in permanent repository research. Organizing workshops and conventions is meant to support scientific exchange. Participating institutes are planning on incorporating questions from the social sciences into their research portfolio so that it encompasses basic science research, safety and evidence concepts, as well as specific procedures for research site selection. ContaCt _Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT Prof. Horst Geckeis horst.geckeis@kit.edu Final stretch for proton therapy building Delivery of the circular accelerator at the new OncoRay Center for Proton Therapy proved nothing short of spectacular. Previously, the device had been on the road for several days from Belgium to Dresden via heavy-goods transport, covering a distance of more than 800 kilometers. It was developed and manufactured by Ion Beam Applications S.A. (IBA), the Belgian global leader for these types of equipment. Already, the company operates thirteen active proton facilities for cancer therapy all over the World and will soon also be in charge of operations in Dresden. Be that as it may, the cyclotron arrived in the middle of the night of February 6, 2013, at the Dresden University Hospital campus. The proton accelerator, which was set on its foundation that very same day, weighs 220 tons. To ensure it could be installed with the help of a heavy lift crane, the roof of the building had actually been left open and, thus, media reps and local residents alike took the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to photograph the two parts of the cyclotron gliding in and also to take a tour of the building. The OncoRay Center's supporters - the Carl Gustav Carus University Hospital, the Medical Faculty of the same name at TU Dresden, as well as the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden- Rossendorf - have joined forces with the common goal of exploring options for an extremely precise form of proton beam based cancer therapy. The plan is to continue to develop the use of protons in Dresden over the coming years, both close to the patient and far off from commercial restraints. www.oncoray.de 110 TONS OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY: The upper part of the cyclotron sailing in through the roof of the new OncoRay building. The first patients are scheduled for treatment as part of clinical trials as early as 2014. Photo: André Wirsig

discovered_01_2013

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