Target area
Last week, the ESS project reached an important milestone as the monolith vacuum vessel was delivered from in-kind partner ESS Bilbao in Spain. It has since been lifted up on the Target high bay, measured, verified and lowered to the circular monolith enclosure area.
Sandwich panels for the Transport Hall entrance have been completely installed. The corner of Experimental Hall 3 adjacent to Transport Hall is now ready for cantilever roof fitting.
Metal cladding on high bay level and on the front facades of the Accelerator to Target building is ongoing.
Experimental Halls & Labs
The steel framework for the shielding bunker on the north side of the bunker surrounding the Target monolith is in progress.
The overhead crane for Experimental Hall 2, with 28-metre-long crane beams, was delivered and is subject to installation and commissioning.
Scaffolding is in place for the bunker crane works on the south side of the Target monolith, which includes welding crane consoles and mounting runways. Cable ladders and ventilation ducts are completed in the bunker area of Experimental Hall 1. In January 2021, ESS Neutron Scattering Systsems will get parallel access to repeat the bunker construction activities performed right now on the other side of the monolith (inside Experimental Hall 2).
Sandwich panels are installed in the east end of Experimental Hall 1 – both on the front façade and on the east gable facing the adjacent substation building.
TRP roof works are completed for the remaining part of the Beamline Gallery, connecting the Target building to the long instruments in Experimental Hall 3. Before the end of this year, this building will be weathertight. This means that all sandwich panels, parapet and roof membrane will be in place. During December, the overhead crane is scheduled for installation. Demolition of the temporary wall, connecting part 1 and part 2 of the gallery, is planned for later this spring.
The BIFROST instrument cave inside Experimental Hall 3 has been structurally completed last week, and fitted with an external beam stop.
Accelerator buildings
The last water skid for the Front End Building ground floor has been delivered – this is the water cooling unit for the Drift Tube Linac section of the Accelerator. We now have four water skids.
Commissioning of the Material and Personnel Access System, with the aim to control passage into the Accelerator area during operation, continues.
In Test Stand 3, inside the Gallery building, testing of a serial-produced ESS modulator for the medium beta section is currently ongoing, using a dummy load instead of the klystrons. Once a series of tests have been completed for this power converter, the unit will be moved to its final position in the first medium-beta radio frequency cell of the Klystron Gallery.
