What happens if you stick your head in a particle accelerator? (2017)

Re:What happens if you stick your head in a particle acceler... by zaarn on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:15AM (#28127365)

For experiments, it's not unusual that the actual test is taking place in atmosphere. There is no issue as you can simply put a solid metal cap on the end of the accelerator and the beam will just blast through it with no issue and the atmosphere isn't going to slow it down significantly over the next few meters.

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Re:What happens if you stick your head in a particle acceler... by voldacar on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:46AM (#28127633)

Thanks, I didn't know that. In a situation like that, is most of the danger to a human from bremsstrahlung, or the actual original beam of particles?

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Re:What happens if you stick your head in a particle acceler... by zaarn on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:50AM (#28127659)

Both and more. The danger from the beam is limited to a specific energy intensity, otherwise the beam will pass through without depositing much energy (there is ways to calculate this). The bigger dangers are all the atoms the beam knocks out on it's way that are likely to transmute into radioactive isotopes via various modes of actions as well as the hard bremsstrahlung generated by the beams interactions as well as some of the stuff it knocks along (there is enough energy that if the beam knocks into an electron, the electron will dump some bremsstrahlung while it slows down again).

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Re:What happens if you stick your head in a particle acceler... by DennisP on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @08:32AM (#28128005)

Interesting. I always assumed the radiation was from the target.

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