Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2006 Division of Nuclear Physics Annual Meeting
Wednesday–Saturday, October 25–28, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee
Session BA: Societal Impact of Nuclear Physics |
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Sponsoring Units: DNP Chair: Richard Milner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Room: Gaylord Opryland Tennessee C |
Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:00PM - 2:36PM |
BA.00001: A Medical Application of Nuclear Physics: Particle Radiotherapy with Protons Invited Speaker: Since the discovery of radiation, applications have been made to medicine. The advent of higher energy particle accelerators in the second half of the twentieth century enabled modern tele-therapy using relatively high energy x-rays and particles. Today mega-voltage (MV) x-rays are the most common modality of delivering high doses of potentially life saving radiation to a wide variety of disease, mostly malignant cancers. However, the maximum radiation dose that can be delivered is always limited by the effects to critical surrounding biologic structures. In many cases, due to their physical properties, ``heavy'' particle radiotherapy with protons and light ions may provide an advantage in this respect over MV x-rays allowing either a higher dose of radiation to be delivered to the volume or, for the same dose, reducing the concomitant damage to critical structures. This motivation, together with recent advances in particle therapy systems that are making the technology more readily available, is serving to grow the field of particle therapy. In particular, treatment with fast protons is becoming more widespread with over 20 facilities operating worldwide and more under construction. This presentation will provide an introduction to heavy particle therapy and additional details specifically on proton therapy. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 26, 2006 2:36PM - 3:12PM |
BA.00002: The future of energy security in the 21st Century Invited Speaker: Energy is essential for modern life and is a critical resource that we take for granted. Economies and security of nations depend on reliable and cost-effective access. As the world transitions from conventional oil and natural gas to nuclear, renewables, and unconventional sources we are increasingly confronted by many unsettling questions. Will there be enough cheap oil and gas for preserve the standard of living in the developed world and allow the industrializing world to develop? Will renewable sources provide a significant fraction of our energy needs in the near future? Is global warming already happening as a result of our consumption of fossil fuels? If there is a resource crunch before new sources come on line, will there be conflict or global cooperation? This talk will attempt to answer these questions by examining the global oil and gas resources, geopolitics, and key science and technology issues that need to be addressed by the global community with cooperation and a sense of urgency. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 26, 2006 3:12PM - 3:48PM |
BA.00003: Global Nuclear Energy Partnership: Origin and Path Forward Invited Speaker: The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) will be discussed, starting with its origins. The discussion will include the challenges to realizing the GNEP vision; these challenges are technical, economic, and political. The role of number of on-going activities will be discussed. The national science community, and nuclear science in particular, has the potential to contribute to advancement of GNEP on both technical and political fronts. This presentation will be used to engage the nuclear science community in a a dialog about how they might effectively contribute. [Preview Abstract] |
Thursday, October 26, 2006 3:48PM - 4:24PM |
BA.00004: Non-destructive Elemental Analysis on Paintings and Metal Artifacts Invited Speaker: In most cases sampling on art objects is prohibited for several reasons: The uniqueness of the objects, their - intellectual - value, and their fragility. In the cases where sampling is authorized, it is only possible on hidden places, not, e.g. in the facial region of a portrait. Therefore, non-destructive methods have to be applied in order to obtain information about the composition and structure of the objects. One non-destructive method of choice is the proton induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). High energy protons with an energy of around 60 MeV have a large range in the investigated material and, therefore, can provide information from deep inside the object. Measurements on ancient paintings, providing complementary information to the Neutron Autoradiography, as well as the analysis of Bronze Age and Medieval metal objects, will be presented. [Preview Abstract] |
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