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J-PARC Project Newsletter
_______ No.31, February 2008 _______
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under construction jointly
by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and
the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
THE YEAR OF 2008
BUDGET FOR JFY2008 INFORMED
NEW USERS STEERING COMMITTEE STARTED
MEETING WITH GOVERNOR AND MAYOR
2. [Accelerator Division]
RADIATION SAFETY INSPECTION FOR THE RCS WAS CLEARED, BEING
READY FOR THE NEXT STEP TO INJECT THE TEST BEAM TO BOTH THE
NEUTRON PRODUCTION TARGET IN THE MLF AND MR
3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division]
CONSTRUCTION OF HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
CONSTRUCTION OF NEUTRINO FACILITY
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
IPS08 AND J-PARC SYMPOSIUM WILL BE HELD ON MARCH 5 TO MARCH 7
(http://www.ips08.com)
HYDROGEN GAS CIRCULATION SYSTEM WAS COOLED DOWN TO A NOMINAL
OPERATION TEMPERATURE AT 20 K SUCCESSFULLY
5. [Nuclear Transmutation Section]
A SYMPOSIUM ON "REACTOR PHYSICS AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTAL
FACILITIES FOR ACTINIDE MANAGEMENT"
6. [Radiation Safety Division]
3GEV BEAM ACCELERATION STARTED AT RCS
7. [Information System Section]
WIDER J-PARC NETWORK (JLAN) CONNECTION BETWEEN TOKAI AND
TSUKUBA SUPPORTS J-PARC ACTIVITIES
8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings]
9. [Editorial Note]
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1. [Overview] By Shoji NAGAMIYA
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THE YEAR OF 2008
The year of 2008 has started. Last year, the project had two
exciting events: a successful acceleration of proton beams at the Linac
in January and a successful acceleration at the 3 GeV in October. This
year, we plan to inject beams to the 50 GeV ring in May, which is the
next major milestone. We also plan to open a facility to materials and
life science users for their experiments by the end of the year. In
addition, we expect to have "extracted" beams from the 50 GeV within
this year.
After the project team established the construction schedule two
years ago, no schedule changes have been observed in so far. In other
words, everything has been on an exact schedule since then. I hope
very much that this trend can be kept in 2008, so that we can complete the
Phase 1 project within JFY2008.
BUDGET FOR JFY2008 INFORMED
At the end of December of 2007, the budget for JFY2008 was
announced. The total budget for J-PARC in JFY2008 will be over 180 Oku
Yen. About half goes to construction and the rest goes to operation.
With the approved operational budget a 2 cycle operation for neutron
and muon experiments will be possible in JFY2008, where the "1 cycle"
is approximately equal to one-month beamtime.
The Phase 1 construction will be finished within JFY2008.
Therefore, two new construction items were requested for JFY2008:
1) an energy boost of the Linac to 400 MeV and 2) construction of
two new neutron instruments. A small but very important initiation budget
for these items was also approved for JFY2008.
A significant increase of the operation budget will be needed in
JFY2009, as the J-PARC will enter into a full operational mode in
JFY2009. We started to discuss with the funding agency on mechanisms
of how to create an operational budget for J-PARC.
NEW USERS STEERING COMMITTEE STARTED
Since the J-PARC will soon move from a construction phase to an
operational phase, the J-PARC Center decided to reform the previous "J-
PARC Users Consultative Committee" to "J-PARC Users Steering Committee"
by having many new committee members. This new committee will discuss
a future roadmap of the J-PARC after its operation begins. Many items to
improve the J-PARC have already been proposed from five communities:
high-energy physics, nuclear physics, neutron science, muon science,
and nuclear transmutation. Also, industries are proposing an expansion
of the J-PARC to industrial users.
At the end of the December 2007, the new committee members had
the first meeting on how to create a roadmap for J-PARC for the coming
5-10 years. It was decided to hold a meeting, which is open to related
community members, having presentations by representatives of
individual communities. In March this meeting will be held in Tokyo.
The members of this new Users Steering Committee include chairs of
the important committees at the individual communities. Therefore, the
decision at this Users Steering Committee will have a heavy weight for
deciding a future direction of the J-PARC.
MEETING WITH GOVERNOR AND MAYOR
Since the year of 2008 is important for J-PARC, the Director of
the J-PARC Center visited the Governor of the Ibaraki Prefecture and
the Mayor of the Tokai Village. Already, the Ibaraki Prefecture has
two major contributions to the J-PARC by giving funds to 1) two neutron
experimental instruments by occupying two beamlines and 2) a new office
space in front of the JAEA campus for users at J-PARC. The J-PARC
Director appreciated support for both. Also, the Tokai Village has
been supportive to the J-PARC in many aspects. Many important
facilities that will be needed for the J-PARC operation were discussed
with the Mayor, including lodging for users.
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Yoshishige YAMAZAKI
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RADIATION SAFETY INSPECTION FOR THE RCS WAS CLEARED, BEING
READY FOR THE NEXT STEP TO INJECT THE TEST BEAM TO BOTH THE MLF
AND THE MR
As already reported, the Rapid-Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) accelerated
the beam to its design energy of 3 GeV on October 31st, 2007.
Afterwards, the measurement of the radiation levels has been carried out by
the authority on November 28th and December 20th at the beam dumps for
the extracted beam at 3 GeV and the H0 beam at 180 MeV, respectively.
The latter dump is used in case of a failure to strip two electrons from a
negative hydrogen ion at the first charge exchange foil. Both the beam dumps
can
accept beams up to 4 kW and the inspections were conducted at a quarter of
the beam power, that is, 0.8 kW. Note that the inspections have been
successfully passed with very stable operation of the linac and the RCS for
several hours. Then, we obtained the official permission to operate the RCS.
(Officially speaking, the operation so far is a test run for this
inspection.)
This implies that the J-PARC can submit the request for the
permission of the next step of the beam commissioning for the Materials and
Life Science experimental Facility (MLF) and the Main Ring (MR), which is
scheduled for this May. The beam commissioning beyond 4 kW will be conducted
at this stage using the neutron-production target at the MLF. In the MR, the
test powering of the main magnets started last December towards the beam
commissioning in May.
In the operation of the MLF and MR, the beams will be mainly delivered
to the MLF and four bunch-train beams will be delivered to the MR every
three seconds, while it is necessary to deliver the beams flexibly to both
facilities during the beam commissioning. Therefore, the timing system
provided by the control group is very important to realize flexible and
reliable beam sharing for the next beam commissioning.
In contrast to the beam commissioning scheduled for May, the RCS will have
to provide the beams to the MLF with a beam power of several 10 kW towards
user operation scheduled at the end of this year. Therefore, we just
started to take data on the beam parameters to optimize them towards
much higher beam power operation. This kind of beam study will be conducted
in January and February.
As for the hardware problems in the RCS, we have already replaced the
broken ceramics vacuum chamber located at the injection area during the
winter
shutdown. However, we can complete the repair of the foil exchange system by
this summer. One of the biggest issues is how to solve the problem of the
injection shift bump; the condensers, with which Radio Frequency (RF)
shields and flanges of the ceramic chamber are connected, were burned out
due to the voltage induced by the bump field during operation with high
repetition
rate of 25 Hz.
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3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division]
by Jun IMAZATO and Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO
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CONSTRUCTION OF HADRON EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
Towards the first beam extraction to the Hadron Experimental Facility,
the construction of beam lines is now in the busiest phase. Recently,
the magnet installation in the 180-m long extraction line tunnel has been
completed, and the vacuum beam pipes have been connected together
with beam monitors. The alignment of all the elements was carefully
repeated to adjust to the initial level shift of the building. After wiring
to the power supplies the magnet test will start and the extraction line
must be ready for operation, before the start of the main ring (MR)
commissioning in May. After the hall building was handed over to the
facility
group from the KEK construction department in the last summer, equipment
installation has been proceeding in the hall. About 5000-tons of concrete
shielding blocks as well as iron blocks were transported from the
KEK-Proton Synchrotron Facility(PS). Ninety pieces of recycled iron blocks
from DURATEK co. ltd were also brought into the hall. The primary line
magnets,
most of which are radiation hard ones made of mineral insulation cables,
are now
being equipped with a "chimney", the service feeding top structure,
and ready for installation on the alignment base-plates. The assembling
of the beam dump and the installation of the T1 target follow. The
installation of the K1.8 secondary beamline upstream part will also start
soon.
CONSTRUCTION OF NEUTRINO FACILITY
The Helium vessel of the Target Station (TS) was completed on
November 30, 2007 and building construction which surrounds the TS vessel
is going on. Neutrino buildings for utility (NU1, NU2) and loading (NC) are
also
being build around the TS. The NC building will be available soon to
carry in some superconducting magnets into the neutrino beam line
in February.
The neutrino 3rd horn system is being built with real length bus bars
and support system including remote maintenance system for cables and
pipes. The height of the 3rd horn system is about 9m. Tests for
handling (for building and maintenance) are done and preparation for the
operation test is being carried out, which will be done in February.
Assembly work of the Beam Dump (BD) for the neutrino beam line is
started. Graphite cores and aluminum cooling plates are being
delivered to J-PARC and the setup for the assembly work was built in
December,
2007. Core modules will be built with graphite core and aluminum
cooling plates and core modules will be assembled into the BD.
Underground wall construction of the Neutrino Monitor (NM) pit was
completed in December, 2007. Excavation is being carried out
and will be completed in January. Then the floor construction will
follow, which will be finished by the end of March.
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Yujiro IKEDA
=====================================================================
IPS08 AND J-PARC SYMPOSIUM WILL BE HELD ON MARCH 5 TO MARCH 7
(http://www.ips08.com)
HYDROGEN GAS CIRCULATION SYSTEM WAS COOLED DOWN TO A
NOMINAL OPERATION TEMPERATURE AT 20 K SUCCESSFULLY
1) Neutron Source
The proton beam transport line successfully accepted the first 3-GeV
proton
beam pulse extracted from the 3-GeV synchrotron and transported it to the
beam dump on 31 October 2007. All the beam transport line magnets and the
beam monitors worked very well. The beam line components are now being tuned
for better beam monitoring and less beam loss.
The exchange processes of the mercury target and the components of the
mercury circulation system were successfully confirmed by using the robotic
power manipulator that learned certain positions needed for each movement.
Air-tightness of the helium-vessel was demonstrated. It can be evacuated
down to 100 Pa for gas exchange, and it can contain He gas at slight
positive
pressure at 2 kPaG without meaningful leakage.
Commissioning of the cryogenic hydrogen circulation system has started.
Helium
gas instead of hydrogen gas was circulated in the system, and cooled down to
a
nominal operation temperature at 20 K successfully. The three moderators
were
cooled down to 20 K by He, and the integrity of the moderators at the
cryogenic
temperature was confirmed. Thermal heat load of each moderator was about
100 W, which is very close to the design value.
2) Neutron Science
Extension buildings for the Engineering Diffractometer (Takumi, JAEA )
and for
the Super Resolution Powder Diffractometer (SHRPD,KEK) have been finished
in November and December, respectively. Those buildings can extend the
flight
paths of those instruments to 32m and 100m. Shielding for TAKUMI has been
already delivered in the buildings. A vacuum tank (25m^3) for 4D Space
Access
Neutron Spectrometer ( JAEA ) has been also delivered in the main
experimental
hall and is waiting for installation in January. Beam line alignment of the
supermirror guides for the IBARAKI Materials Design Diffractometer
( Ibaraki pref. ) has also been started recently.
We will make 6 instruments to be ready for accepting the first neutrons in
May,
hence, a very busy construction by many companies is underway during
January to March.
Those instruments are,
4D Space Access Neutron Spectrometer ( JAEA ), Nuclear Engineering
Instrument ( Hokkaido University ), Super High Resolution Powder
Diffractometer ( KEK ), Engineering Diffractometer ( JAEA ), IBARAKI
Biological
Crystal Diffractometer ( Ibaraki pref. ), IBARAKI Materials Design
Diffractometer
( Ibaraki pref. )
3) Muon science
The construction of the decay muon beam line in the 2nd Hall in the MLF
building was started. To transport pions efficiently from the production
target and
to collect decayed muons in flight, a long solenoid magnetic field is
needed.
The superconducting solenoid (SCS) used for 28 years at the Muon Science
Laboratory (KEK-MSL) was tested for its durability under high pressure in
Tsukuba
and was transported to Tokai for installation into the tunnel of the decay
beam
line after being reassembled in the thermal shield and vacuum chamber. Since
the
SCS was located very close to the beam dump and production target and so
highly
activated, it was transported in a container with a radiation shield partly
of
10cm lead thickness. Also a part of the 2nd Hall where the SCS was
installed
must be declared as a radiation-safety-regulated area. The installation of
the
radiation shield surrounding the muon beam line is now started. The major
part
of the beam transport elements, namely quadrupole magnets and bending
magnets
will be reused from previous beam lines at KEK-MSL. They are now
refabricated
in the factory and will be installed in this spring.
On January 15-16 the VIth Muon Science Experimental Facility
Advisory Committee Meeting (MuSAC) was held at meeting room of JRR1 in
JAEA under the chair of J-M Poutissou (TRIUMF).
The status of construction related to the muon facility and science
proposed was presented and discussed. The importance of the 1st Day
experiment as well as an early start of the 2nd phase program was
recognized.
4) IPS08 and J-PARC Symposium will be held on March 5 to March 7.
Please visit the WEB site. (http://www.ips08.com)
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5. [Nuclear Transmutaion Section] by Kenji KIKUCHI
=====================================================================
A SYMPOSIUM ON "REACTOR PHYSICS AND FUTURE EXPERIMENTAL
FACILITIES FOR ACTINIDE MANAGEMENT"
1) Voice of Users in Transmutation Physics
To activate the user community for the Transmutation Physics
Experimental Facility (TEF-P) in J-PARC, a Symposium on "Reactor
Physics and Future Experimental Facilities for Actinide Management"
was held in Tokyo on December 6, hosted by the Reactor
Physics Division and the Nuclear Data Division of the Atomic Energy
Society of Japan and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The requirements
and the perspectives of the reactor physics experiments on light water
reactors, fast breeder reactors, accelerator driven system(ADS), and
so on were discussed in the Symposium. It was recognized that the
existing experimental facilities in Japan are not sufficient to meet the
increasing demands on advanced and innovative nuclear systems such
as transmutation systems and higher burn-up reactors. It was also
recognized that the TEF-P should be designed to satisfy these future
demands and more discussions by user community are necessary to fix
the facility concept.
2) Lead Bismuth Technology and International Collaboration
JLBL-1 (JAEA Lead Bismuth Loop -1) operation in 2007 was ended
last December after 3000 hrs run. Material corrosion analysis of
Grain Boundary Controlled stainless steels, provided by Tohoku
University, is scheduled. The steels are expected to have a function
to suppress damage along grain boundaries in liquid lead bismuth.
Measurement of a new oxygen probe with a solid oxide reference
electrode in solid electrolyte, was also done in this run. It is intended
for use
at JLBL-1.
MEGAwatt PIlot Experiment (MEGAPIE) steering committee was held
at Paul Sherrer Institut (PSI), Switzerland, on Nov. 27-28, 2007. Follow-up
works after lead-bismuth spallation-target irradiation in 2006 are going
ahead.
3) Meeting report
The 5th Workshop on Asia ADS Network was held at Seoul, Korea,
on Nov.1-2, 2007. Topics covered innovative nuclear systems including ADS,
reactor physics, nuclear data, fast reactor, lead-bismuth technology,
and proton accelerators.
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6. [Radiation Safety Division]
by Minoru TAKASAKI, Taichi MIURA and Hiroshi NAKASHIMA
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3GEV BEAM ACCELERATION STARTED AT RCS
The application for the 3GeV-Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) facility
was
granted on June 29, 2007. Before accelerating beam in the 3 GeV RCS,
inspections by the Nuclear Safety Technology Center (NUSTEC) were
compulsory. The first inspection before the operation was conducted on
September 6, the second inspection during the operation was conducted
on November 28 and December 20, and the operation license was issued
on December 27. Then the beam acceleration was started at the 3GeV-RCS.
Applications for licenses of the 50GeV-Main Ring synchrotron (MR)
operation and the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) have been
deliberated by the advisory committee established by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT): the
committee members made an inspection of J-PARC on November 15.
The 5th Expert Committee on the safety of the J-PARC neutrino
production target met on December 4. In the committee, the
following items were reviewed: safety aspects of the neutrino
production target, maintenance scheme of horns and other instruments,
the safety design of the liquid He cooling system, interlock system,
handling of radioactive cooling water for secondary beam lines, and
operation of facilities and its safety control system.
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7. [Information System Section] by Toshio HIRAYAMA and Setsuya KAWABATA
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WIDER J-PARC NETWORK (JLAN) CONNECTION BETWEEN TOKAI AND
TSUKUBA SUPPORTS J-PARC ACTIVITIES
In the last October, by adopting the L2 VPN technology to the JLAN
(J-PARC intra network)-SINET3 (http://www.sinet.ad.jp/) network
connection which was started since July 2005, the network bandwidth
of JLAN between Tokai and Tsukuba area was increased 10 times wider
from 100Mbps to 1Gbps. This speed-up is expected to contribute
smoother human and data communication between J-PARC Tokai area
and KEK Tsukuba site.
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8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings]
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Neutron Target Technology Advisory Committee (NTAC)
27-29 February 2008
International Advisory Committee (IAC)
3-4 March 2008
International Advisory meeting for DNA spectrometer
27- 29 February 2008
Contact: K.Shibata shibata.kaoru@jaea.go.jp
The First J-PARC International Symposium
International Symposium on Pulsed Neutron and Muon Sciences (IPS 08)
5-7 March 2008 (http://www.ips08.com)
Contact: H Takada, K Nakajima
e-mail: IPS08@ml.j-parc.jp
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9. [Editorial Note]
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Editorial Board:
Masatoshi ARAI (chair): masatoshi.arai@j-parc.jp
Yujiro IKEDA: yujiro.ikeda@jaea.go.jp
Nobuo OUCHI: nobuo.ouchi@jaea.go.jp
Shinya SAWADA: shinya.sawada@kek.jp
Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO toshifumi.tsukamoto@kek.jp
English Editor: Dick MISCHKE mischke@triumf.ca
Secretary: Chikako KAIBARA kaibara.chikako@jaea.go.jp
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