The upgraded ring loss radiation monitoring system at the AGS

With the Booster, the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) will accelerate protons to 3×10¹³ per cycle, polarized protons at 10¹², and ions from carbon to gold at intensities from 50 to 3×10⁹. A loss monitoring system is being developed to facilitate tuning, and to reduce the exposure of personnel to radiation by minimizing residual induced activity and by remotely monitoring activity in the accelerator enclosure. The monitoring system must have a large dynamic range to monitor high-intensity beam losses and to measure induced activity down to the level of a few millirads per hour. Various detectors are being evaluated, including ion chambers, proportional counters, and aluminium cathode electron multipliers. Measurements of the prompt ionization distribution in the median plane at various energies from point targets at two representative locations in the accelerator lattice have been completed. Details of the monitoring system are presented, as well as the experimental measurements of the prompt radiation field and a comparable Monte Carlo calculation