Protection Systems Engineering Course

21 Sept 2026, 07:30 → 25 Sept 2026, 17:00 US/Eastern

Bldg 8600 C-156 (Spallation Neutron Source)

Kelly Mahoney (ORNL/SNS), Patrick Bong (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)

The Protection Systems Engineering course introduces students to the practical issues involved in protection systems for particle accelerators, including system hardware and software, reliability versus availability, and management of change. The material is intended to familiarize students with the competency requirements in consensus standards as they apply to accelerator personnel protection systems. The course is aimed at electrical and electronic engineers, technicians, and managers who are responsible for developing and maintaining protection systems.

The course objective is to teach the basic skills needed for safety systems analysis, design, and management in accelerator protection systems. These skills include safety lifecycle development, initiating event calculation, SIS selection and evaluation, fail-safe design, and requirements identification and development.

Instruction will consist of a series of lectures supported by PowerPoint presentations and related handouts. The course will also include 2–3 group exercises introducing students to hazard assessment tools and risk modeling. Problem sets will be assigned for completion outside scheduled class sessions. Instructors will also be available outside of class for group discussions and homework sessions.

Course content begins with a basic introduction to system safety in research accelerators, followed by discussion of safety terminology, such as hazard, risk, accidents, and reliability, as it relates to system safety. The concept of lifecycle management will then be introduced. Lifecycle relationships will be emphasized throughout the rest of the course in connection with DOE requirements (DOE O 420.2D), regulatory requirements (10CFR 835), standards of practice including reviews of IEC 61508 and IEC 61511, risk assessment methods, SIL evaluation, system modeling (Reliability, Fault, Markov) and architectures. As time permits, additional topics may include SIL-rated systems, operational considerations, human factors, certification and testing, cost/value analysis, oxygen deficiency, and final devices/critical devices.

Textbook:

Reliability, Maintainability and Risk; Dr. David J. Smith

 

 

 

 

Monday 21 September

08:00 → 09:00 Check-in

09:00 → 09:40 Welcome

09:40 → 10:00 Coffee Break

10:00 → 11:00 Introduction to accelerator SIS

11:00 → 12:00 Safety Terminology

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 → 14:00 Management

14:00 → 14:20 Tea Break

14:20 → 15:30 Safety Lifecycle development

Tuesday 22 September

08:00 → 09:30 Regulations

09:30 → 10:00 Safety System Analysis

10:00 → 10:20 Coffee break

10:20 → 12:00 Safety System Analysis

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 → 14:30 Initiating event calculation

14:30 → 15:00 Tea break

15:00 → 16:30 Risk assessment

Wednesday 23 September

08:00 → 10:00 Requirements identification and development

10:00 → 10:20 Coffee break

10:20 → 12:00 SIS SIL selection

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 → 14:30 System planning

14:30 → 15:00 Tea break

15:00 → 16:30 Safety system models

Thursday 24 September

08:00 → 10:00 Architectures

10:00 → 10:20 Coffee break

10:20 → 12:00 System design

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch break

13:00 → 14:40 Installation, certification and testing

14:40 → 15:10 Tea break

15:10 → 16:30 Operation

Friday 25 September

08:00 → 10:00 SIS and SIL evaluation

10:00 → 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 → 12:00 Cost/value analysis

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch

13:00 → 14:30 SNS Tour

A tour of the Spallation Neutron Source which will cover the control room, the target building and a section of the linac. Duration is about 90 minutes, and the tour will cover about 1 mile of walking.

Speaker: Kelly Mahoney (ORNL/SNS)