From: wylie@sscvx1.ssc.gov (Russ Wylie)
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: SSC Electronic News; 10/15/92
Date: 15 Oct 92 19:31:49 GMT
Distribution: all
Organization: External Affairs, Super Collider Lab





CONGRESSIONAL ACTIVITY UPDATE


On September 15, the House-Senate conference committee on energy and water 
appropriations reported out a compromise bill that included $517M for the 
SSC.  The figure was midway between the $484M that the House 
appropriations committee had recommended (which the full House then 
reduced to $34M) and the $550M that the full Senate had passed on August 3.

On September 17, the House passed the compromise bill by a vote of 245 to 
143, after an hour of lively debate about the SSC.  On September 24, the 
House passed a nuclear testing amendment attached to the bill and sent the 
package on to the Senate, where it was passed the same day by a voice 
vote.  

On October 2, the President signed the bill into law, with Laboratory 
representatives looking on.  After a "cliffhanger" summer, we now have 
funding for FY 1993, which began on October 1.  The funding level is $133M 
less than the $650M requested in the original President's budget, and the 
effect of the lower amount on the project's schedule is being studied.

The "Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference," which 
normally includes only terse summaries of decisions, included a lengthy 
and enthusiastic report on the SSC, its purpose and progress.  Here is a 
very brief excerpt, courtesy of URA:

"Construction of the SSC is the highest priority in particle physics today 
and absolutely critical for progress into the 21st century.  The SSC is 
the next logical step in high energy physics, springing from human 
ambition to expand scientific knowledge and technological capability.
* * *
"Some people raise questions as to the value of fundamental research on 
the nature of matter.  Knowing about the elements of matter is to know 
what is central to science, central to our being, central to the whole 
future of technology, and central to the future of scientific endeavor in 
the world."




FIRST TBM IS ON SITE

The first tunnel boring machine (TBM) has arrived at the N25 service area, 
which is on the north arc of the ring, about 5 miles northeast of the N15 
area where much of the first construction activity has been centered.  A 
rebuilt machine, the TBM will be used by the Gilbert-Shea construction 
team to bore about 8.3 miles of 14-foot diameter tunnel, from N25 to N40.  
Five shafts, 170 - 200 feet deep, are also included in the contract.  One 
of them, the utility shaft at N25, is nearly complete now, and will be 
used to lower the TBM to tunnel level.

Another shaft will be excavated on the south arc, at S30, to gain design 
experience with Taylor Marl, the third main geological stratum the SSC 
tunnel will be bored through.  The contract is expected to be completed by 
December 1994.

Two new TBMs, now being built, are due to arrive soon at N15 and N20.  By 
the end of the year, boring of three sections (N15-20, N20-25, and N25-40) 
will be under way.  Tunneling of the entire north arc (N15 to 55) is under 
contract now, and we are pleased to note that these tunneling contracts 
have come in well below the baseline cost estimates.

The service areas we keep mentioning are parcels of land (about 50 acres 
each) spaced 2.7 miles apart along the north and south arcs of the 
Collider rings.  Starting on the west side, the north arc includes service 
areas N15 through N55, and the south arc continues around from the east 
side with S15 through S55.  Between the north and south arcs are straight 
sections about 5 miles long.  Here the injector accelerators will feed 
protons into the Collider rings, rf cavities will accelerate them, and 
detectors will be installed at four collision points, two east and two 
west.  Much larger parcels of land have been acquired for the east complex 
(about 2000 acres) and the west complex (about 7000 acres).

Site preparation work has begun on the northern service areas, where the 
first tunneling will be done.  Detailed planning is under way for the east 
and west complexes, including roads and utilities, cooling ponds, and 
preparation of the IR5 and IR8 sites, on the east side where the two big 
detectors will be located.


R&D MAGNET CARRIES 10,000 AMPS

As the SSC magnet program moves into its industrial phase, interesting 
results are still coming from the final phases of the magnet research and 
development work.  Recently Fermilab tested a full-length R&D Collider 
magnet called DCA322.  The magnet was very similar to the baseline 
Collider dipole, differing only in some details of insulation and 
adhesive.  Although DCA322 did train a little at temperatures in the range 
from 2K to 4K, when the helium reached superfluid temperatures (1.8K), it 
went to very high currents.  After three training quenches at this 
temperature, it reached a plateau at approximately 10,000 amperes, near 
the limit of the power supply.  (As a point of comparison, 6550 amps and 
4.35K are required to produce the Collider design field in these magnets.) 
 The high-current test result underscores our confidence that the 
mechanical design is very robust, because the forces on the windings go up 
as the square of the current.  Such confidence is reassuring when one 
contemplates building 10,000 Collider magnets.


ACCELERATOR NEWS

The RFQ (radiofrequency quadrupole accelerator) has been delivered by Los 
Alamos National Laboratory, and is being installed and tested.  The RFQ is 
the second accelerating stage of the Linac, taking protons transferred 
from the 35 keV ion source up to a kinetic energy of 2.5 MeV.  Modulators 
to control the klystrons that will power the DTL and CCL (drift tube linac 
and coupled cavity linac) have been ordered (at less than the baseline 
cost estimate) from Maxwell Laboratories.  The DTL and CCL are the last 
two stages of the Linac, which will take the beam to 600 MeV.

The civil construction design package for the LEB (low energy booster) has 
been finished.  LEB prototype dipoles are being built at SLAC and INP (the 
Institute for Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia); prototype 
quadrupoles, at LBL and INP.  Corrector magnet prototyping is being done 
at SSCL, and INP is beginning to study these, too.  It is expected that 
INP will provide all the LEB magnets, with first production beginning next 
summer.  Two competing rf system concepts are being developed at SSCL and 
INP; these will be tested early next year.

A full size mock-up of the dipole-dipole interconnect region in the MEB 
(Medium Energy Booster) is under construction.  A prototype dipole magnet 
is to be built by Fermilab, and negotiations for the quadrupoles are under 
way with MRTI (the Moscow Radio and Technology Institute).  Measurements 
have been completed on coupling impedances of the three candidate rf 
cavities, including one designed by INP-Novosibirsk.

For the HEB, the first model dipole is to be built in November by 
Westinghouse, who will design and develop the dipole, build prototypes, 
and deliver 50 low rate production magnets.  The design and development of 
HEB quadrupoles is well advanced at Saclay.  Spool pieces are being 
designed at SSCL, and corrector magnets will be developed through 
modifications to the existing contracts for Collider correctors.  
Westinghouse will study the observed ramp rate dependence of SSC 
superconducting magnets, a phenomenon that is more important for the 
rapid-cycling HEB than for the Collider.

As we "go to press," General Dynamics is about to begin winding coils for 
the first Collider dipole in its new magnet facility in Hammond, 
Louisiana.  Meanwhile, back at the SSCL, a new three-dimensional CAD model 
lets designers take a computer-assisted "walk" through the west utility 
area.  The west area is very congested, with injection lines coming in 
from the HEB and other lines leading out to the beam backstops.  The CAD 
model is essential if mechanical interferences among components are to be 
avoided.  Another important computer task is under way, that of building a 
database of every technical component in the Collider: magnets, monitors, 
electronics--thousands of items.  The database will be used later by the 
subcontractors to track the installation of all these components.


EXPERIMENTAL FACILITIES 

Plans for experimental facilities to support the assembly of the large SSC 
detectors are evolving.  Five separate buildings (for coil winding, magnet 
assembly, calorimeter assembly, muon assembly, and detector operations) 
had been planned for the IR-5 area (putative GEM territory).  Now these 
are to be replaced by two general-purpose assembly buildings, which will 
be used first to wind coils and assemble the large superconducting magnet, 
and then to assemble the calorimeter, tracking, and muon systems.  The 
IR-8 area (SDC country) has also been simplified and will have one large 
multi-purpose assembly building.  These buildings are now being designed 
in detail.

Detailed design is also well advanced for the basic structures of the 
underground halls themselves, now that radiation studies have been 
completed.  The simulations of radiation from the interaction regions 
resulted in some changes, such as extra right angle turns in access 
tunnels.  The neutron dose at any place accessible to people while the 
Collider is running will be about the same as that from natural background 
radiation.


COMMENTS ON SSC NEWS INVITED

We are interested in knowing how well this newsletter is serving the 
community it is designed to reach.  Do you read it regularly?  Does it 
contain the kind of information you want?  If not, what would you like to 
see?  Should it appear more often?  Less often?  Comments on these and any 
other aspects of the letter are welcome.  Please send a note with your 
opinions to BAGGETT@SSCVX1.


DATES TO REMEMBER

October 27-31		IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium
		Orlando, Florida	(JWD@ANLHEP, WSMITH@WISHEP)

November 5-7		Machine Advisory Committee meeting
		SSCL, Dallas

November 9		URA Board of Overseers meeting
		SSCL, Dallas

November  9-14		10th International Symposium on High Energy Spin Physics
		Nagoya Japan		(HORIKAWA@JPNKEKVX)

November 10-14	Particles & Fields 92:  DPF Meeting
		Fermilab, Batavia, Illinois	(SAZAMA@FNAL.FNAL.GOV)

November 16-17	B Physics Studies:
		Collider Experiment with Central Rapidity Coverage
		Fermilab			(BPHYSICS@SSCVX1)

November 19-21	Scientific Policy Committee meeting
		SSCL, Dallas

December 2-4		Program Advisory Committee meeting
		SSCL, Dallas


May 5-8, 1993		International Industrial Symposium on the Super Collider 
(IISSC)
		San Francisco, California	(P. Patterson:  619-490-0164)




SSCLAB CALENDAR

To see a longer list of HEP events, including SSC detector collaboration 
meetings, log onto SSCVX1 as SSCLAB (no password is required) and select 
calendar from the menu.  Send any comments or items for the calendar to 
USERSOFFICE@SSCVX1.


HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO SSC NEWS

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Russ Wylie, Director, External Affairs,
Super Collider Laboratory
Dallas, TX 75237
214 708 1045; FAX 214 708 0000