ID :
183125
Thu, 05/19/2011 - 12:42
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/183125
The shortlink copeid
Controversy erupts over design of ion accelerator
(ATTN: UPDATES with more comments, details from para 8)
SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea's planned rare isotope accelerator is embroiled in controversy over design plagiarism, an episode that could affect overall plans to build the country's new science belt, the local science community said Thursday.
Seoul plans to build the Korea Rare Isotope Accelerator (KoRIA) by 2017 at a cost of 460 billion won (US$423 million) and without outside help, a key part of a state program to help boost cutting-edge technologies.
The controversy flared up after the vernacular daily Donga llbo reported Thursday that KoRIA had copied design features of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) being built in the United States.
"Of the four types of superconducting cavities in the linear accelerator, three seem to have been copied from FRIB," the newspaper said, citing that the acceleration rate of KoRIA's three superconducting cavities is identical to that of FRIB.
It added that in the conceptual design released by local designers, there were no attributes related to KoRIA's superconducting cavities' design, fueling suspicions of plagiarism.
The cavities are part of the linear accelerator that can allow scientists to accelerate particles from very light hydrogen to heavy uranium that may lead to discoveries of rare isotopes that are not normally found in nature. This can advance research and development in nuclear fusion, energy, astrophysics, material and bio sciences, and medical areas.
Dismissing the report, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the accelerator's engineering development team said that despite similarities, KoRIA is based on an "original" concept.
Hong Seung-woo, a professor of Sungkyunkwan University who is in charge of KoRIA's development program, stressed the Korean and U.S. designs are very different because they use different frequencies to accelerate the ion particles.
"KoRIA uses 70 megahertz compared to 80 megahertz for FRIB," he said.
The difference in frequency effectively makes the Korean accelerator's beam intensity 100 times stronger than that of the U.S. design. He said because of this difference, the superconducting cavities that will go into KoRIA cannot be the same as those to be used in FRIB, even if they may look similar to a non-expert.
He also said KoRIA will make use of two different acceleration systems that can result in more exotic beams being produced for experiments, compared to a single system that will be implemented in FRIB. He added that KoRIA will be designed from the outset to use both linear and circular accelerators.
"In addition, FRIB's conceptual design has already been released as an open source and will not cause any problems in terms of intellectual property rights issues," Hong said.
He pointed out that the technical review committee chairman for FRIB was an outside observer who examined the conceptual design of KoRIA and did not raise any issues about copying.
Funding has not been decided, but detailed technical designs on KoRIA will start at the end of this year with the science ministry aiming to complete work by late 2016. FRIB may be built in 2018.
The ministry, meanwhile, said it is open to discussing cooperative research with FRIB, which is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, that may reduce funding and overall development time, although such a step may require South Korea to change its accelerator design outright.
SEOUL (Yonhap) - South Korea's planned rare isotope accelerator is embroiled in controversy over design plagiarism, an episode that could affect overall plans to build the country's new science belt, the local science community said Thursday.
Seoul plans to build the Korea Rare Isotope Accelerator (KoRIA) by 2017 at a cost of 460 billion won (US$423 million) and without outside help, a key part of a state program to help boost cutting-edge technologies.
The controversy flared up after the vernacular daily Donga llbo reported Thursday that KoRIA had copied design features of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) being built in the United States.
"Of the four types of superconducting cavities in the linear accelerator, three seem to have been copied from FRIB," the newspaper said, citing that the acceleration rate of KoRIA's three superconducting cavities is identical to that of FRIB.
It added that in the conceptual design released by local designers, there were no attributes related to KoRIA's superconducting cavities' design, fueling suspicions of plagiarism.
The cavities are part of the linear accelerator that can allow scientists to accelerate particles from very light hydrogen to heavy uranium that may lead to discoveries of rare isotopes that are not normally found in nature. This can advance research and development in nuclear fusion, energy, astrophysics, material and bio sciences, and medical areas.
Dismissing the report, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the accelerator's engineering development team said that despite similarities, KoRIA is based on an "original" concept.
Hong Seung-woo, a professor of Sungkyunkwan University who is in charge of KoRIA's development program, stressed the Korean and U.S. designs are very different because they use different frequencies to accelerate the ion particles.
"KoRIA uses 70 megahertz compared to 80 megahertz for FRIB," he said.
The difference in frequency effectively makes the Korean accelerator's beam intensity 100 times stronger than that of the U.S. design. He said because of this difference, the superconducting cavities that will go into KoRIA cannot be the same as those to be used in FRIB, even if they may look similar to a non-expert.
He also said KoRIA will make use of two different acceleration systems that can result in more exotic beams being produced for experiments, compared to a single system that will be implemented in FRIB. He added that KoRIA will be designed from the outset to use both linear and circular accelerators.
"In addition, FRIB's conceptual design has already been released as an open source and will not cause any problems in terms of intellectual property rights issues," Hong said.
He pointed out that the technical review committee chairman for FRIB was an outside observer who examined the conceptual design of KoRIA and did not raise any issues about copying.
Funding has not been decided, but detailed technical designs on KoRIA will start at the end of this year with the science ministry aiming to complete work by late 2016. FRIB may be built in 2018.
The ministry, meanwhile, said it is open to discussing cooperative research with FRIB, which is being funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, that may reduce funding and overall development time, although such a step may require South Korea to change its accelerator design outright.
