RECRUIT/TRAINING OF AEC PERSONNELFOR OPERATIONS OF HIMAC FACILITY
H. Nakabushi, Y. Sano, C. Kobayashi and H. Tubuku
Accelerator Engineering Corporation (AEC), 2-13-1, Konakadai, Inage, Chiba 263, Japan(E-mail: nakabushi@aec-beam.co.jp)

Abstract
AEC’s major jobs in HIMAC facility are operation andmaintenance of the accelerator complex, but are also
included technical supports of heavy-ion cancer therapy,
relating treatment planning and physics & biology
experiments, and facility support and management. We
have been carrying out all of those jobs under theauspices of NIRS. Required technologies are widely
spread due to such various service and support jobs.
Most of the personnel have different backgrounds and areusually not accelerator-related. Recruiting and hiring
personnel and their training are important and ongoing
matter.

1 WHAT’S AEC
Accelerator Engineering Corporation (AEC) is a privatecompany, which was founded in 1992 by the joint
investment of four accelerator makers and other twocompanies, with the purpose of carrying out operationand maintenance of HIMAC (Heavy Ion Medical
Accelerator in Chiba) facility at National Institute ofRadiological Sciences (NIRS) in Chiba Prefecture [1].
Since then, AEC has been expanding its service andsupport jobs in HIMAC under contract with NIRS. Ourpresent major jobs are to carry out:
• operation and maintenance of HIMAC accelerator
complex, constituting of ion sources (PIG, ECR,HEC), injector linac’s (RFQ and DTL), heavy-ionsynchrotrons (2 rings), high-energy beam transportlines, and irradiation systems for cancer therapy andrelevant experiments,• irradiation treatment support for carbon-ion cancertherapy,• relevant treatment planning support,• technical support of physics and biology experiments,and• maintenance of buildings and equipments .
Also are included operation and maintenance of NIRS
cyclotron facility, which composes of a large isochronous
cyclotron (NIRS-930), a small cyclotron (HM-18) andnine experimental beam lines [2]. In addition, from1996, the preventive semi-annual maintenance jobs ofHIMAC in August and March have been put into AEC’sresponsibility.
Besides the operation and maintenance, we areexpected to perform R&D works on power supplies,
beam monitors, radio frequency acceleration, vacuum

system and other relevant fields, under suggestion of andin collaboration with NIRS researchers. The recent
operational experience in HIMAC is presented elsewherein these proceedings [3], on both operation andmaintenance aspects for highly reliable and stable beam
supply. Accumulated total number of treated patients inHIMAC became over one thousand in early 2001. Then,the number has been increasing at twenty percents ormore per year. Our medical support jobs are increasing
with the patient load.
During beam commissioning of HIMAC, the engineersof the accelerator makers and related companies engaged
in the accelerator operation. After successfully finishing
the commissioning, AEC received them as loaned staffs
for the help of continued operations of HIMAC. We
appreciate their cooperative and helpful activities and callthem “cooperative personnel”. At the present stage, thenumber of AEC’s personnel is one hundred and sixteen
including cooperative personnel. The number of theengineers belonging to HIMAC’s operation and technicalsupport groups, with the exception of facility maintenance,
is fifty-three, averaged around thirty-one years old.
AEC’s engineers have to engage in a wide variety ofactivities, which range from performing safe and efficient
operation of the accelerator to supporting experiments
using delivered ion beams. We need engineers ofvarious fields: mechanics, electronics, accelerator physics
and engineering, radiation handling, machine control
system etc.
Here, a special mention is that AEC has recently
received a contract from Hyogo Ion Beam Medical Center(HIBMC) in Hyogo Prefecture, for operation of theparticle therapy facility, PATRO (Particle Accelerator forTherapy, Radiology and Oncology), which is a medicaldedicated accelerator complex with a proton & carbonion synchrotron [4]. We are pleased that HIBMC has
evaluated our technical experience and skills cultivated inoperations of HIMAC facility. AEC’s thirteen proficient
operators, trained in upgrade level at HIMAC, start tocarry out regular operation of PATRO in the beginning of
this coming April.

2 RECRUITMENT
Usually, it is very rare to recruit and hire employees
who have previous experience in accelerator operation or
specific skills needed to operate an accelerator. We
fortunately have had cooperative personnel with extensiveoperational experience for HIMAC and senior personnel

becoming experienced during the beam commissioning ofHIMAC. The cooperative personnel are those who aresent from accelerator makers and relating companies onloan. AEC had started HIMAC operation jobs with thehelp of those cooperative personnel.
Since then,although most of the cooperative personnel returned
gradually to their home companies, some of them havebecome to be our permanent ones. With decreasing
cooperative personnel and expanding service and support
jobs, we have had to recruit and hire new employees
almost every year. During ten years since 1992, wehave employed sixty-nine individuals in total, and thoseof twenty retired. Most of the personnel have different
backgrounds and are usually not accelerator-related.
Therefore, recruiting and hiring personnel and theirtraining are important and ongoing matter.
The first stage of the recruiting and hiring process is toget good candidates. Our efforts of recruiting recent
graduates expand from universities and graduate schools
to vocational and technical schools, mainly throughprivate communication and recommendation and by
posting on local bulletin boards at universities andschools. Hiring efforts are widely made by advertisingon dedicated home pages and magazines. As desired
fields of employed individuals, we inform of mechanicalengineering, accelerator engineering, analog & digitalelectronics, computer control, and hard & soft wares etc.
The second stage is to review the written applications
and resumes. The third stage is to screen for getting
good prospects for the interview. In the fourth stage, thecandidate gets a tour of HIMAC facility and operation
areas, before the interview.
The fifth stage is the candidate’s interview, at which webriefly explain the accelerator, its operation and shift
work, and the candidate introduces his own job
experience or school study and self-motivation. In theinterview, we intend firstly to appreciate good personality
and positive motivation, secondly to expect goodcommunication skill and footwork ability, and thirdly tocheck basic knowledge and skills. After the discussion
among the interviewers, other senior and management
staffs, the headquarters makes the final decision.
Although we have had success recruiting externally, wehave hired a few qualified candidates from other researchorganizations and accelerator makers.

3 TRAINING
Once we recruit and hire new employees, we must
provide adequate training for them.
The training
program is a combination of training lectures, on-the-job
training (OJT), and self-study.
The initial program is collective lectures by seniorpersonnel and OJT in the accelerator control room. The
introductory lectures intend to provide a fundamental
understanding of the facility, its systems and its operation,such as beam operation, beam optics, ion source, injector
linac’s, synchrotron, irradiation system, etc. Among thelectures, regular training courses are included on radiation

protection and occupational safety issues.
Then,respective expert staffs give lectures on specific parts of
the accelerator in rather details: high-energy beamtransport line, power supply and electromagnet, coolingwater system, vacuum system, RF system, beam
monitoring, computer and control system etc. In nonlecture times, the trainees stay in the accelerator control
room, learning how the accelerator system is controlled
and operated, under the guidance of an operation crewleader on duty. At the end of this initial program, thetrainees receive an evaluation test on viewing theirgeneral understanding and submit short reports on
specific operation subjects. If the trainees do notcomplete the evaluation, the evaluator identifies areas forfurther self-study.
In the second program, the trainee is successively, in aperiod of one to two weeks, attached to respective groupof the accelerator operations, experiment support andirradiation support, and starts first-stage OJT, where helearns and understands how each group is working,participating in certain job under the guidance of aninstructor or group leader. On leaving each group, thetrainee is required to make up a report regarding theoperation job that he carried out. In the third stage, weformally set him in one of the working groups and starts
OJT in higher level, and deals with real practice under
man-to-man direction of a specified instructor.
After finishing the lecture program of two months andthe initial OJT of next two or more months, the trainee
becomes to deal with in regular operation, designated as
an operator trainee.
A few or several months later, the evaluator conducts
an evaluation using the applicable standard as a metric indetermining whether the trainee’s knowledge and/or skills
reach to expected levels.
The operator traineedemonstrates his understanding of and ability to perform
real job tasks. If the operator trainee completes this final
evaluation, he is promoted to a regular operator.

4 ADVANCED TRAINING,
DEVELOPMENT AND FUTURE
CONCERN
Training begins with recruiting and hiring and ends
with retention.
Emphasis is placed on self-study
program not only to maintain, but also to enhance, theskills and knowledge acquired. Required knowledge formachine operation and maintenance is widely spread, andour personnel have to upgrade their knowledge
continuously to keep pace with facility changes andimprovements. Steps in between include professional
development and career advancement. We, in regularmanner, perform exchanging personnel between thegroups, for extensive operational experience andexpanding technical fields and abilities.
Off-shift and downtime projects are encouraged
because they provide opportunities for in-depth study of
specific aspects of accelerator operation and maintenance.
During non-operational periods, specified talks or reports

are given on projects, new equipment or system andchanges in the accelerators and are used to maintain andenhance operator’s proficiency.
These lectures areprovided by system experts and are videotaped forviewing of those unable to attend. These videotapes also
serve as training materials for future operators.
Although the direct application to machine operationand maintenance is usually limited, supplemental outsidetraining at technical training courses, business seminars
and laboratory training sessions, participation in relevantsymposiums on accelerator engineering, radiation
handling and specific technologies, and acquirement ofauthorized qualifications such as radiation protection,
electronics, electricity, information technology etc. arealso encouraged
Our company has celebrated the tenth anniversary lastyear, and the present personnel have averaged thirty-one
years old, being still a young organization compared withother companies. However, taking account of next fiveor ten years, a foreseen concern is how long a person canwork as an operator. The stress of working rotating shift
including night shift may cause a senior person to seek aposition with normal working hours. This does notnecessarily mean that the person is seeking to leaveaccelerator operation. However, the number of suchsenior positions available is limited. We have to findout new jobs or positions for senior personnel inneighboring and relating fields to that of accelerator
operation.

5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Drs. S. Yamada, E.
Takada and other researchers of the Department ofAccelerator Physics and Engineering at NIRS for theirwarm and continued encouragements. And, we are
grateful to our colleagues of AEC, whose efforts form thebasis of the present report.

6 REFERENCES[1] Y. Hirao, et al., “Heavy Ion Synchrotron for MedicalUse”, Nuclear Physics, A538 (1992), 541c;
E. Takada, et al., “Present Status of HIMAC”, Proc.
13th Symposium on Accel. Sci. & Tech., Suita,Osaka, Japan (2001), pp.187-189.
[2] S. Hojo, et al., “Recent Improvements and Status at
NIRS Cyclotron Facility”, Proc. 13th Symposium onAccel. Sci. & Tech., Suita, Osaka, Japan (2001),
pp.196-198.
[3] T. Kondo et al, “Operational Performance of HIMAC
and Cancer Therapy”, in these proceedings.
[4] A. Itano, “Accelerator Facility PATRO for Hadrontherapy at Hyogo Ion Beam Medical Center”, Proc.
13th Symposium on Accel. Sci. & Tech., Suita,Osaka, Japan (2001), pp.160-164.