Attachment C - NSCOR NSRL Information.pdf

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The NASA Space Radiation Laboratory at Brookhaven National Laboratory

The NSRL is an irradiation facility capable of supplying particles from protons to gold with primary energies in the range of 50-2500 MeV for protons and 50-1100 MeV/n for high charge and energy (HZE) particles. Activities at the NSRL are a joint effort of BNL’s Collider- Accelerator Department, providing accelerated particle beams, and the Biosciences Department, providing experimental area support, animal care, and cell and biology laboratories. The NSRL includes irradiation stations, beam controls, and laboratory facilities required for most radiobiological investigations. NASA typically operates the NSRL for approximately 1,800 hours per year.

Current NSRL irradiation capabilities:

• Dose-rates of approximately 10 Gy/min using a 20 × 20 cm2 beam area and approximately 0.5

Gy/min using a 60 × 60 cm2 beam are available. Dose fractionation across multiple days is also possible.

• The exposure structure, referred to as “spills”, for most radiobiology exposures has a four second repetition time. During this four second period, the ions are extracted uniformly in time during a 0.3-0.4 second spill, followed by a ~3.6 second dead time when the beam is off.

• Single ion or mixed-beam field irradiations are possible including GCRSim and SimGCRSim [1].

For ion and energies availability, see Table 1.

Schedule: The NSRL is scheduled for three runs per year; Spring (March – May), Summer (June – July), and Fall (Sept – Nov).

Cell Culture Capabilities: Two labs for cell/tissue culture procedures are available as well as one lab for additional processing of samples including two chemical fume hoods (~325 sq. ft./room)

Vivarium: In the current configuration, approximately 8000 rodents/year can be supported for animal-based experiments.

The animal husbandry system at NSRL includes five caging racks and a ventilation/filtration system in largest (250

sq. ft.) room, and two smaller rooms (175

sq. ft. each) with conventional caging systems (Figure 2). Animal facilities accredited by the Association for

Figure 1. NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (NSRL) at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Figure 2. NSRL’s rodent vivarium.

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Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care are available in the Biosciences Department, subject to standard use charges Additional information concerning NSRL may be found at the link below:

http://www.bnl.gov/medical/nasa/nsrl_description.asp.

Other Capabilities User facilities have been developed at BNL for radiation biology research, including cell cultures and small animals. These include the shielding cave containing the beam, the biological experiment stations at NSRL, and long-term laboratory space and animal facilities in the Brookhaven Biosciences Department.

A 10-ft long optical bench for sample exposures is available in the cave, as well as beam handling, sample changing, and dosimetry instrumentation. The biological

Table 1. Ion Species and energies available at NSRL http://www.bnl.gov/medical/nasa/nsrl_description.asp

Attachment C 80JSC026Q0003 Page 3 of 4 experiment station contains areas for cell culture equipped with a laminar flow hoods and incubators, a short-term animal holding facility, and an area for physics/run-control use. In addition, there is flow cytometry and microscopy equipment available for use. For more information about NSRL beamline capabilities please see the User Guide located here:

https://www.bnl.gov/nsrl/userguide/index.php

Requirements:

Use of the Brookhaven facilities requires a separate beam time application that is reviewed by a BNL-appointed panel and is scheduled in accordance with available beam time and other laboratory resources. BNL users are required to satisfy the normal process of preparation for running at the NSRL, which includes familiarization with BNL rules and policies (safety being the paramount consideration among these) and registration with the facility as a guest scientist.

Beam time proposal guidance and information that can be used to estimate approximate beam time can be found here:

https://nsrl.bnl.gov/Forms/FormsHome.aspx.

Contacts:

The science team at NSRL, Dr. Michael Sivertz (Email: sivertz@bnl.gov) and Dr.

Peter Guida (Email: guida@bnl.gov) , can be contacted for further information

References:

[1] L. C. Simonsen, T. C. Slaba, P. Guida, and A. Rusek, “NASA’s first ground-based Galactic

Cosmic Ray Simulator: Enabling a new era in space radiobiology research,” PLOS Biol., vol.

18, no. 5, p. e3000669, May 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000669.

https://www.bnl.gov/nsrl/userguide/index.php https://nsrl.bnl.gov/Forms/FormsHome.aspx mailto:sivertz@bnl.gov mailto:guida@bnl.gov)z

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