CERN-hosted Workshop Agenda:
Design Characteristics of a Linear Accelerator for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
DATE: November 7-8, 2016
LOCATION: Geneva/CERN
CO-ORGANIZERS: Manjit Dosanjh, CERN; Norm Coleman, ICEC; David Pistenmaa, ICEC
This Workshop represents a convergence of goals and objectives of national and international organizations to fill the current gap of approximately 5000 radiation treatment machines, primarily in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, as reported by the UICC Global Task Force for Radiation Therapy for Cancer Control (GTFRCC), and the global need to reduce the threat of radiological terrorism inherent in the wide distribution of cobalt-60 treatment units, primarily in LMICs. In addition to bearing the cost of conventional (standard) linear accelerators, many countries lack the physical infrastructure, such as reliable electrical power and water, to support sophisticated accelerators and also have a shortage of adequately trained personnel to run and maintain the complex machines. There is concurrent interest to increase the security of radiological materials among experts involved in nuclear non-proliferation, including the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Agency and the IAEA, as well as other governments and non-governmental organizations. These interested organizations recognize that achieving this goal by replacing cobalt-60 with linear accelerators will require providing expertise, education, training and sustainable mentorship in the recipient countries.
Below you will find a tentative agenda for the Workshop that undoubtedly will be modified depending upon the personnel who will be able to participate. We anticipate attendance of 40-50 people. We do not plan to have parallel sessions at this Workshop. We recognize that not everyone on the tentative list has yet been contacted personally, but until we are able to do so, we wanted to be sure to ask potential participants to hold the date open.