Poland reinforces its links with CERN

A collaboration agreement has just been signed with the Cracow Institute of Nuclear Physics under which a team of Polish physicists, engineers and technicians will come to CERN to assist with the inspection of LHC assembly work.

The Polish community was in the spotlight on 26 June when the Laboratory signed a collaboration agreement with the Cracow Institute of Nuclear Physics (HNINP) represented by its Director-General Andrzej Budzanowski and his Deputy, Grzegorz Polok. Under the terms of the agreement, 22 physicists, engineers and technicians from the HNINP Institute will come to CERN on project associate contracts to inspect the LHC interconnections. However, this is not wholly unfamiliar territory for these scientists. « Many of them have worked in the accelerator sector at DESY and Brookhaven", underlines Blazej Skoczen, who is in charge of the cryomagnet interconnections.


Andrzej Budzanowski, Director-General of the Cracow Institute of Nuclear Physics (HNINP) and Lyn Evans, LHC Project Leader, signing the collaboration agreement. In the background, from left to right : Grzegorz Polok, Deputy Director-General of the Cracow Institute of Nuclear Physics, Blazej Skoczen, in charge of the LHC cryomagnet interconnections, Claude Détraz, Director for Fixed Target and Future Programmes, Alain Poncet, AT/CRI Group Leader.


Poland, which has been a Member State of CERN since 1991, is thus strengthening its links with the Laboratory. There are currently 39 Polish scientists working at CERN, 19 of whom are members of the CERN staff, from five different institutes: the Institute of Physics of Polish Academy of Sciences and University of Technology in Warsaw, the Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, the AGH University of Science and Technology and the Cracow University of Technology and the Wroclaw University of Technology.
The 22 new Polish recruits are likely to have a tough task on their hands. They will have the task of inspecting the 1700 interconnections between the LHC magnets. These interconnections are actually complete systems since they have to ensure continuity of the vacuum chamber, superconducting cable, cryogenic, helium supply, main magnet and corrector magnet systems. All the interconnection components are inserted into a double-walled sleeve so that they can be kept at liquid helium temperature. « The interconnections will consist of a total of 250 000 components and 123 000 connections will be needed to integrate all the components », explains Blazej Skoczen, "The complete system must be 99.5% reliable, which means that breakdowns must not exceed 10 days in 10 years' operation. So assembly inspections are an essential operation."
The Polish scientists will start their inspection work in April 2004. Four teams of three will check that the components have been properly assembled, that there are no breaks in the systems and that the specifications have been complied with. A further team of nine will have special responsibility for testing the electrical systems. This September four people will come to CERN to define and set up the inspection procedures. Then they will have to create the teams before the inspections can begin.