Target
Epoxy painting is ongoing inside the Utility and Monolith buildings. The superstructure for Experimental Hall 2 is progressing, and a frame for the outer limits of the building is now visible on site. Preparations are ongoing for the installation of the temporary 60-tonne crane up on the high bay. A few more castings remain for the retaining walls around the Dog Leg, in readiness for work to start on the backfill by the end of February.
The ESS labs are currently being equipped with lab furniture. Work continues with the construction of the NMX cave, with the second casting of the plinth scheduled for the coming week (central parts). In the Beamline Gallery, work with shielding plates for some of the neutron guides is ongoing.
Accelerator
Installation of the ESS tuning beam dump has resumed - the beam dump copper component, copper piping and additional steel shielding will be installed in the beam dump cave, located at the very end of the Accelerator tunnel in the A2T (Accelerator to Target) tunnel. The main purpose of the tuning beam dump is to receive the proton beam for tuning purposes during the period the target station isn't ready for operation and as part of the start-up scheme prior to 'beam on target'.
The tuning beam dump is delivered to the project by in-kind partner, ESS Bilbao, in Spain. You may recall that some 200 concrete blocks arrived from Spain as the very first in-kind contribution to ESS back in 2016. Some of these have now been lifted out to make place for the tuning beam dump component and additional steel shielding.
General
ESS's Civil team is busy with completion works outside the Experiment Hall buildings and the roads adjacent. Along the west footpath to the buildings and along the Gallery Building, kerb stones are currently being installed and paths levelled.
