All the accelerators and storage rings at SLAC have been shut down since 11 October, when an electrical accident at the laboratory severely injured an electrician working for a subcontractor. SLAC director Jonathan Dorfan ordered the shutdown immediately after the accident, and he has decided that all experimental facilities should remain closed pending the findings of a Department of Energy accident-investigation board and implementation of the remedies it mandates.
SLAC is funded by DOE. The investigation board, headed by DOE’s Richard Stark, was charged with investigating the proximate and root causes of the accident.
The board’s report was released on 15 December. (It can be requested at http://www.eh.doe.gov/csa/reports/accidents.) It expresses some harsh judgments about safety oversight and procedures at the lab. Among its conclusions is the finding that “SLAC’s emphasis on the scientific mission as a means to secure funding from the [DOE] Office of Science and compete with...