Page 82 - A Life - my Live - my path

My career - the IRE

specialists from all over the world came to explain the
progress they had made in their fields, as well as the
expectations and challenges they faced. After the mission,
when I returned to the IRE, I had drawn up - as was
customary - a report of several pages detailing everything I
had learned during the conference. I sent this report to the
general management, the various heads of department and
the people involved in the project. In all, around fifteen
people were involved. After reading the report, the
Managing Director sent a memo to all these people
congratulating me on the quality of the report and the
seriousness with which I had written it. From that day on,
my colleagues looked at me differently. A kind of respect had
set in.

Once the construction phase was completed, the cyclotron
went into production at the end of 1983. The cyclotron team
consisted of 9 people. The head of department, a secretary,
3 engineers and 4 technicians. Later, a fourth engineer and
a physicist joined the team.
For each production run (day or night), there was an
engineer, a pilot technician and an engineer on duty. The
engineers and technicians had all been trained to operate the
cyclotron. Operations were carried out from a control room
where everything was centralised. Start-up, operating and
shut-down procedures were perfectly documented. Safety
measures were of a very high standard. If a problem arose
(pump warning light, faulty valve, electrical warning light, etc.), the
technician would intervene and, if necessary, the engineer

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