ABSTRACT
High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) launched an education project for the fabrication of an accelerator named "AxeLatoon" in 2020 together with the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN). This project aims to improve engineering skills of students and foster the next generation of accelerator researchers by providing hands-on training in the field of accelerator science. In the first year, we collaborated with the NIT (KOSEN), Ibaraki College to build an accelerator. Students took the initiative in this extracurricular activity and challenged building an accelerator. From 2021, we expanded this project to other prefectures and four schools are now participating. The design and fabrication of a small cyclotron accelerator is currently underway. Despite the restrictions on activities and the limited mobility of people due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the project continues to educate students about basic technologies and accelerators. We are holding seminars a few times a month utilizing online communication tools. In this report, we would like to share the status of AxeLatoon's activities based on the actual production of students at KOSEN and deepen the discussion on accelerator outreach programs. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
ABSTRACT
The goal of this project was to create and optimize the performance of portable chambers for reliable ultraviolet (UV) disinfection of personal protective equipment (PPE) and enable its safe reuse. During unforeseen times of high demand for PPE, such as during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), single-use PPE supply can be quickly depleted. UV radiation has been shown to disinfect materials with high efficacy. This paper reports the design and construction of two 280 nm ultraviolet-C (UV-C) disinfection chambers in the form of portable chambers with 46 cm x 46 cm x 46 cm interior dimensions, one using light-emitting diodes and the other using mercury vapor lamps. This paper summarizes and presents a review of SARS-CoV-2 UV deactivation research during 2020 to 2021. Additionally, this paper discusses efforts to increase the uniformity and overall intensity of the UV-C radiation within the chambers through the installation of a UV-reflective, porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) material. A calculator prototype was additionally designed to calculate the reduction of SARS-CoV-2 as a result of UV-C disinfection, and the prototype code is presented. The paper describes the selection of UV-C radiation sources for the chambers and the chambers' mechanical and electrical design, PTFE installation, testing, and safety considerations.