Target
The permanent Target crane, designed to carry special loads of up to 115 tonnes, is now in place up on the high bay. This custom-made crane will be used in the future, when in ESS will be in full operations, to perform special lifts of materials from the Target Monolith to the Active Cells. Before then, the crane will be used for installation works.
Epoxy floor treatment is ongoing on the high bay level. The area around the Monolith and over the Utility Building is completed, after which flooring for the Active Cell/Transport Hall, plus the part closest to A2T (Accelerator to Target) will follow. Once the epoxy has fully cured, the areas will be covered with protective floorboards.
The first cantilever curved roof piece on the Experimental Hall 1 side was lifted in place last week. At the same time, sandwich panel work continues towards the Lab 1A end, after which roof works will follow. The inner crane beam for the Hall 1 bunker crane is fitted. The welding of consoles around the Monolith on the Hall 2 side is reaching completion, and mounting of the outer runway will resume shortly. By the end of this month, the scaffolding tower will be removed, providing ESS parallel access in order to to continue with the steel skeleton for the bunker, whilst installation and commissioning of the bunker crane continues (expected to be operational late-October). Once the Hall 2 crane is completed, the same procedure will follow on the Hall 1 side. Inside Hall 2, installation of large ventilation ducts in the ceiling continues, crane rails are in place, and the overhead crane is scheduled for installation later this autumn. Hollow core slabs for the top floor of the Hall 2 lab were laid last week. This now allows concrete to be poured into the seams, after which screed will follow on all floors. Mounting of the sandwich façades can soon follow.
Accelerator
Installation of the helium collector pipe, which includes lifting it into place and welding, is now completed for the medium beta section, and continues in the high beta superconductive part of the tunnel. Electrical infrastructure installations are underway, which include cable pulling for the spokes, medium beta and high beta sections in both the Klystron Gallery and through the stubs to the Linac. Modulator power connections, MAS/PAS (Material Access Station & Personnel Access Station) cable terminations and system energisation, LWU (Linac Warm Units) clean room activities, and various installation activities are also ongoing throughout the increasingly busy looking Tunnel and Gallery building areas.
A cycle of successful cooling tests of the cryomodule prototype's cavities have been completed inside the Test Stand 2 bunker. A stable temperature of 2K (-271oC) was obtained. A so-called Controlled Rupture Disc Failure Test were carried out last week, which involved testing the safety mechanisms for dealing with overpressure inside the cryomodules.
General
The Campus plaza, the outdoor area in between the Campus buildings, is now taking shape. Preparations have started to cast outdoor concrete floors and establish a park-like area for recreation and contemplation, close to the Target Entrance Building. The first casting is planned for this week. Inside the Campus buildings, internal finishes and final touches are in progress.
Façade and internal fittings continue for the Waste Treatment Facility. The back of the building is now fully equipped with insulation boards, and the big front gates are in place at the front of the building.
BIFROST
The construction of the BIFROST instrument cave is progressing inside Experimental Hall 1. Using hollow concrete blocks as built-in formwork, and filling with in-situ cast concrete in two casting sequences per row of blocks, results in a thick, robust structure. The second layer walls were mounted and cast last week. In all, the structure is to be built in five layers, then finished off with pre-cast elements for the roofing.
BIFROST is a so-called spectrometer, where the focus is to study magnetism in extreme conditions using a high-flux of neutrons, with the aim to reveal fundamental discoveries previously unseen in the magnetic field.
