Accelerator shut

摘要

Following a radiation leak, no experiments will take place at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC), in Ibaraki prefecture, until early next year, the facility's director, Yujiro Ikeda, said on 10 June. The leak occurred at the Hadron Experimental Facility on 23 May, when a proton beam damaged a gold target, releasing material that exposed 34 workers to low-dose radiation. A malfunction of the beam extraction unit was blamed, and an investigation is under way. All experiments up to the end of July are cancelled. J-PARC was already scheduled to close from August this year until late January 2014 for maintenance.