The extension of the Antiproton Hall, which will house ELENA, was inaugurated today (Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN)
Tacked on to the side of the Antiproton Decelerator (AD), this building will soon house the cleaning rooms, workshops and generators for the kickers of the AD and the future Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring, ELENA.
"Today we’re celebrating the completion of a project which, I’m happy to say, has gone very well," says 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. A shielding slab 800 millimetres thick was implemented to protect the building from radiation.
Christian Carli, ELENA Project Leader (BE-ABP Group), says: "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 metres in circumference, will be installed in the AD hall mid-2015 and its research programme should begin two years later.
