1

Project Manager Report

Andy Nichols, STFC – RAL

MICE Collaboration Meeting, RAL, 19-22nd October 2008

2

Contents:

• Achievements since CM21

• Target, decay solenoids

• Infrastructure

• Cooling channel elements

• Preparations for Phase Two

• Project Organisation

• Open issues and concerns

3

Achievements since CM21Briefly:

– DSA PPS system is operational– Main Hall PPS plan has been agreed – ‘green light’ for

implementation’– Very significant progress with the Infrastructure project– TOF0 is in its rightful place and working– A physical start has been made on the Focus Coil project with

Tesla– A framework for the Phase Two project is becoming clearer– A steady stream of visitors to MICE for running shifts and

installation - seems to be working well– A MICE Liaison/admin Officer will start on 29th October– A slding beamstopper is ready to install and authorisation to

use it is in place– Tracker #1 is ready to integrate– Good progress with the DL RF project

4

Target & Solenoids

Target:– The installed ISIS target remains reliable, drive system and

controls are robust and are now well understood– Link between ISIS BLMs and dip depth now being studied,

problems with signal cables, etc now fixed– But, Offline target has failed badly (seized shaft/bearings) earlier

this year – has compromised our agreement with ISIS– After this weekend, we have about 30K cycles left – need to do

serious running at end of January, so need to re-establish the on-offline running regime with ISIS. What are we doing?

• Accept that we only have time to understand and refine the shaft/bearing interface

• Strengthen the engineering input – Jason Tarrant has started in this area

• Weekly detailed meetings are held• Suspicion that magnetic and mechanical axes are out of line• Result, unforseen lateral forces and maybe heat build-up on

bearings• Magnetic modelling (Paul Smith/Tom Bradshaw/Goran Skoro)• Mechanical FEA re-visited (Wing/Stephanie)

5

Target & Solenoids

Decay Solenoid– Linde fridge has been working reliably– During solenoid powering test, discovered one normally-

conducting coil in downstream (coils 6-10)– Every ‘non-intervention’ fix has been tried so we are:

• Going to remove end cap of cryostat in October shutdown (starts today!)

• Need to move dipole and rig small hoist• Experts, including PSI, make investigation, instrumentation

is reinforced• Then we close up and re-cool for further diagnosis• Then in the December shutdown, we remove cold-mass

half-way to fix the problem – can do this without dismantling shield wall

• Rails and support stand are being designed now

– But we are also facing up to taking out the whole cryostat - very uncomfortable, but we might have to

6

Target & Solenoids

Spectrometer Solenoid– Problems discovered with magnet #1 at supplier– Cooling to rad shield and anomaly with vent system

pipework– Both these need mechanical fix– Decided to intercept them on magnet #2 and shift

priority to that – it effectively becomes magnet #1– MICE EB decided to stick to original plan of field map

at FNAL before shipment to RAL – this was the right thing to do

– Combination of the above means magnet #2 arrives at RAL around mid-January ‘09

– More detail from Mike & Steve later I’m sure.

7

Infrastructure

South Shield Wall–All plates are on, including floor plates–LH2 gallery is mostly made and is next to be installed

North Shield wall–Support structure complete–Over half the plates now on

Mound excavation–It’s done, ducts are fitted and mound is backfilled

False floor–Off-site fabrication underway, quench reaction block cast this week, then floor steel can start

Aiming for completion by early December, small celebration on 12th December in R5.2; you are all invited of course!This sets the date after which tracker readout can be installed

8

Infrastructure

July

September

South Shield Wall

Early photo of mound excavation – now done!

9

Cooling channel elements

Focus Coils–Preliminary design review at Tesla in August was unsatisfactory–More work needed on mechanical and thermal calculations and quench protection design–This was fed back to Tesla by Wing – appears to have had desired affect:

•Another design review scheduled for 3rd November•FC delivery schedule unaffected so far

RF Coupling Coils–Good progress with test coil–Production readiness review this week

LH2 system–Mound excavation not a hurdle anymore!–Overall we’re late with prototype system – hard to see it working before Feb next year Decay solenoid has diverted effort–Next step is Hazop 2 review – Nov/Dec?

10

Preparations for Phase Two

Recent History:–The UK Phase Two project contains the Focus Coils, but the infrastructure and installations are also a very significant part and are very easy to under-estimate–STFC asked for a bottom up estimate of the above to Step Five only–This has been done, but inevitably it came to more than can be afforded–It looks like we have to make a four year rather than three year project.–Mike, Alain, Ken & me spent some time earlier this year discussing how this might look–Reviews of major subsystems this week are vital input to costs and milestones for the final project plan – your help here is crucial–UK agreed Phase One deliverables, with exception of LH2 system are on target to be signed off this December

11

Project Organisation

Not much to say here:–Been doing the job for a year now–I like the friendly and constructive atmosphere–There has been some highly visible progress in the Hall and elsewhere; a large number of people should take the credit for this–All the aspects appear to have strong teams with few weak links

MICE does need to formalise safety policy decision process–Some suggestions will be put to EB later this week–Currently we are a bit vulnerable in local (RAL) framework

MICE Liaison Officer has been appointed–She is called Rose Hayes, based in R1–She starts on 29th October–Already has a long list of jobs, accommodation and transport at the top!

Open Issues & Concerns

• For Step Five, MICE needs major Electrical supply upgrade• It’s a non-MICE cost (£600K), but the lead time is two

years• Given a year to worry about how we (STFC) pay for it,

we are already late……• We have to invent a way of parallel working on the LH2

plant, decay solenoid and focus coil integration……• We have some very good technical staff – must hold them

together, within funding limitations, for Phase Two…….• Worries about Decay solenoid, target & TOF1 I regard as

relatively minor, as the right people are working on agreed solutions

12