Category: Faq
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How much ionizing radiation is produced at CERN?
The effective doses to members of the public living closest to CERN and attributed to CERN facilities are so low that they are almost impossible to measure. People living near CERN’s sites receive a maximum annual dose in the range 0.01-0.02 millisieverts, less than 1% of the annual dose received from other sources such as
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How is radiation monitored and controlled?
CERN adheres to an internationally recognised radiation protection system that continuously strives to minimize radiation exposure and, consequently, CERN’s emissions remain consistently well below regulatory limits. CERN’s radiation protection team surveys the ionising radiation produced inside the facilities and close to the facilities. Alarmed gate-monitors are installed and managed by CERN’s radiation protection team to
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What are the types of ionizing radiation?
The majority of the radiation produced by particle collisions is absorbed by the accelerator components. The majority of the radionuclides have short half-lives, the typical half-life being 5.3 years. This means that they are radioactive for only a very short time. Within the CERN facilities the radiation is dealt with following the appropriate radiation protection
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Why does CERN produce ionizing radiation?
CERN’s experiments involve colliding particles beams together or into a stationary target. When this happens some of the particles release radiation or new particles are created. Radiation only occurs at CERN when the particle beam is on, and turning it off stops the emissions immediately. Collision events are also very rare; at the Large Hadron
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What is ionizing radiation?
Ionizing radiation is energy that is transported through particles or waves, such as electromagnetic radiation (X-rays, gamma rays), neutrons, etc. It occurs, for example, when unstable atoms decay to form stable atoms, and release some of their energy. Rocks, the Sun and Space all naturally emit ionizing radiation that we can detect on Earth. Artificial
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Is CERN a nuclear laboratory?
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is a laboratory that studies particles and their interactions, but is not concerned with nuclear energy or weaponry. The name is derived from European Council for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in 1952 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe. At
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Electricity consumption
CERN consumes the most electricity when its most powerful accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is running, which consumes roughly half of CERN’s electricity. CERN has a typical yearly consumption of about 1.2 terawatt-hours (based on the consumption of the year 2012 when the LHC was running). This figure represents approximately a third of the
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Sustainable Buildings and Transport
With a growing number of users and various sites, relatively distant from each other, transport is a major concern at CERN. Several initiatives have been launched over the past years to facilitate mobility on site, to reduce CERN’s fleet of vehicles and to limit the impact from transport. A car-sharing service, with 35 vehicles at
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Preserving the landscape
To reduce the visual impact of new buildings on the landscape, plans are discussed with local authorities to ensure that additions to CERN sites do not alter the overall appearance. Landscaping projects include trees, bushes and grassy areas planted to ensure that CERN sites remain natural and indigenous to the local area. CERN sites stretch
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Minimising ionising radiation
To study the composition of matter, CERN uses particle collisions that generate ionising radiation. CERN continuously monitors its ionising radiation levels to ensure that its releases to the environment are negligible. The vast majority of CERN’s radioactive materials are not contaminating and all radioactive materials are stored and handled following standard regulations. CERN adheres to