SLAC still shut down after accident SLAC still shut down after accident (January 12, 2005)

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

Three accelerators at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) are sitting idle while teams from SLAC, the Department of Energy, and Stanford review safety rules to assure that operations in one of the country's leading scientific laboratories are safe.

The crisis at SLAC was triggered by an electrical accident last October 11. David Simon, an electrician working for a subcontractor, was installing a circuit breaker on a live 480-volt panel when an electrical discharge knocked him across the room and ignited his clothes.

After co-workers doused the flames, Mr. Simon was treated for second and third-degree burns over his upper body at the Valley Medical Center in San Jose. He is still recovering with his family at his home in West Virginia.

Within an hour of the accident, Director Jonathan Dorfan shut down the three accelerators that study the heart of matter and beginnings of the universe. "The safety system broke down," admitted communications director Neil Calder. "We take safety extremely seriously."

Ever since, a series of panels have been analyzing SLAC's procedures for insuring the safety of its workers.

On December 15, a report from the Department of Energy blasted SLAC for lax and informal safety procedures. The accident was preventable, and it was not necessary to do the work on a hot panel, the report concluded.

Citing a previous record of safety violations, the report charged the SLAC department in charge of engineering and maintenance "exhibits a culture where safety is often secondary to operations."

Two more official panels are reviewing safety procedures and will come up with recommendations in the next couple of months, Mr. Calder said. A Department of Energy panel looking at what needs to be done to insure safety is expected to issue its report in mid-February.

Stanford President John Hennessy has also named a blue-ribbon panel of four experts to review the other studies and see that systems are in place to make sure operations at SLAC are safe. It is to report back by March.

Members of the blue-ribbon panel are: Stanford Professor Robert L. Byer, director of the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory; Gary Kern, corporate director of environmental health and safety at Varian Medical Systems; energy and environmental consultant Lawrence T. Papay, incoming chair of the California Council on Science and Technology; and Charles V. Shank, former director of the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Meanwhile, Mr. Simon and his wife have filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the center, alleging that SLAC officials were negligent in asking him to install a circuit breaker on a live electrical panel.

SLAC is operated by Stanford for the Department of Energy. It can be seen by anyone driving Interstate280, between Sand Hill and Alpine roads, where the freeway crosses the two-mile shed above the original accelerator.

SLAC scientists have won three Nobel Prizes over 42 years for research on the basic building blocks of nature.

Except for this accident, SLAC has a good safety record, Mr. Calder said. Even though a worker fell off a ladder in 2002, "this was the first serious electrical accident at SLAC in many years."

SLAC officials hope to resolve the safety issues and get back to research by summer. "We hope to regain lost experimental time later in the year," said Mr. Calder.

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