Intervention Modelling at High-energy Particle Accelerators

An important aspect in the design and operation of high-energy particle accelerators is the planning of maintenance interventions. In the planning of these interventions, optimizing the exposure of the maintenance workers to ionizing radiation is a core issue. In this context, we have addressed the need for an interactive visual software tool. The intervention planning has been modelled mathematically. A proof-of-concept software tool has been implemented using this model, providing interactive visualization of facilities and radiation levels, tools for trajectory planning and automatic calculation of the expected integrated equivalent radiation dose. We explore the use of the software using a large experimental hall at CERN as a case study. Interactive visualization of the facilities and radiation levels, tools for interactive trajectory planning as well as automatic calculation of the expected integrated equivalent dose contracted during an intervention are explored. The obtained results prove the relevance of the developed methodology and software tool and demonstrate, among others, a better exploitation of the simulation data, leading to a potential accuracy gain.