I'd like to point out that it was a PROTON not a PHOTON accelerator. They have the ability to be "fired" outside their respective vaccuums and magnets. Likely when/where/how this happened. It's just an article -and one not so well written, omitting facts and speculating- and should be taken as such. Another important point is that this guy didn't put his head "in" something like a bucket, he put it "in" the path of an accelerated PROTON beam.