ELENA gets a roof over its head
Today, Friday 11 April, CERN inaugurated the ELENA building (393) after less than a year's construction work.
Tacked on to the side of the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), this building will soon house a cleaning room, workshops and generators for the kickers in order to free space in the AD hall, where the future Extra Low ENergy Antiproton ring, ELENA, will be installed.
“Today we’re celebrating the completion of a project which, I’m happy to say, has gone very well,” exclaims François Butin, technical coordinator of the ELENA project (EN-MEF Group). “The deadlines and budgets have been perfectly respected and the building fully complies with our specifications. A great vote of thanks to GS-SE and the outside contractors who have enabled us to complete this project.”
Some 10,000 tonnes of earth had to be moved by around 500 trucks. The presence of the TT2 transfer tunnel directly beneath the building posed a number of technical challenges. An 800-mm thick shielding slab was implemented to protect the building from radiation.
Christian Carli, ELENA Project Leader (BE-ABP Group), adds: "The installation of the ELENA machine is approaching fast. The project's Technical Design Report has just been published and the work is progressing well, including on the transfer-line side.” ELENA’s magnetic deceleration ring, 30 m in circumference, will be installed in the AD hall mid-2015 and its research programme should begin two years later.
For more information on the ELENA project, read our article in the Bulletin issue 26-27/2012.
