Present: M. Lindroos, T. Nilsson, G. Huber, H. Ravn, B. Jonson (chairman), P. Butler, G.Weyer, M. Garcia-Borge, S. Franchoo, J. Äystö, N. Stone, K. Heyde, A. Jokinen, O. Kester

Excused: A. Di Pietro, P. Dessagne,

The meeting starts at 09.00 h

1. Introductory remarks by the chairman

- B. Jonson welcomes the ISCC members and O. Kester, the REX-ISOLDE representative.

- The committee is informed that the Italian representative, A. Di Pietro, is on maternity leave.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 35^th meeting.

M. Garcia-Borge asks for clarification of why the lasers ordered from Russia in 1999 had been cancelled. The minutes are then approved.

3. News from the AB Division

M. Lindroos informs the committee of the following points:

- The HRS front end had been cleaned on the 19^th of May and had been found to be very dirty. High voltage tests would be carried out today, 20^th of May.

- A replacement for U. Georg is to be hired on the 21^st of May. The post is for a high technician, not an engineer, but there are good candidates.

- The Director General of CERN has decided on a quota for permanent contracts. Only half the people expecting these contacts will actually receive them and this could put someone like T. Giles in danger of not getting a permanent contract.

- At present, S. De Man works 30% for ISOLDE and is supposed to replace E. Kugler and C. Chollet. In order to improve this situation slightly, the new ‘engineer in charge’ will be trained to do simple alignments.

4. Schedule for 2003
-T. Nilsson reports that the one week PS start up delay had affected ISOLDE’s full schedule and that, to compensate, a two week prolongation of the running period had been requested.

- M. Garcia-Borge suggests that the ISOLDE User community should be informed about the upcoming G8 meeting in Evian and the problems that it may cause. The committee is informed that the CERN management will do its utmost to provide beam during this period.

- M. Lindroos explains the problems associated with repairing the HRS front end. The committee is told that:

·         No spare front end exists.

·         CERN rules do not allow a radiation dose of more than 2 mSv per intervention, which makes changing front ends during a run virtually impossible.

·         C. Detraz has stated that replacements should exist for high risk parts of ISOLDE, which should be considered as consumables.

·         The construction of the new generation front end will take at least six months but to build an old type front end would take just as long.

 - H. Ravn suggests that, as soon as the prototype of the new generation front end is seen to work, money should be found to order a second front end straight away.  

5. INTC matters
J. Äystö reports on the previous day’s INTC meeting; out of the seven proposals discussed, five were approved and two postponed for further details. The committee is also informed of the Research Board’s satisfaction with the evaluation report of the ISOLDE solid state physics program and it’s wish that the INTC should discuss the solid state program every one to two years, reporting back to the board. G. Weyer summarizes a letter sent by the solid state physics community to H. Flocard (former INTC Chairman) about the evaluation report.

J. Äystö goes on to transmit the positive attitude about ISOLDE physics that was expressed by the Research Board and at a recent meeting of the SPC. He informs the committee that he is to give a presentation of INTC experiments and future plans at the SPC meeting in September.

The committee is asked to consider possible replacements for those INTC members who will be leaving in the near future.

The suggestion by B. Jonson, that, next year, the ISCC meeting should be held on a Monday morning and that the INTC meeting should follow in the afternoon, is agreed to by the committee.

It is decided that a letter from the collaboration would strengthen the joint request  which has been made with the other fixed target installations for a two week prolongation of this years running period.

6. Addendum to the MoU
-M. Lindroos informs the committee of the letter written by C. Detraz to accept REX-ISOLDE for the next three years.

- N. Stone asks for clarification about who exactly should sign the Addendum to the MoU for each member country.

-The contents of the agreement with CERN are then summarized by M. Lindroos. The status of the funding of the posts is discussed. This will be clarified at a planned REX-ISOLDE meeting to be held in late June.

- The committee is informed that no decision has yet been received about the grant applied for from Britain to pay for a technician post.

7. EURISOL

The present status of the RTD project under the fifth framework is discussed and the committee is told that the report, which will be finished by the end of this year, has concluded that Eurisol can be built with a beam 100 times that of ISOLDE and at a cost of half a million euros.

P. Butler reports that a proposal has been made to the EU for a full design study and that the RTD has set up a writing group to prepare draft proposals, the deadline for which is 15^th March 2004. He goes on to say that there is a meeting planned with two CERN research directors, AB and EP division leaders and ISOLDE representatives to discuss EURISOL.

8. Plans for the upgrade of ISOLDE

P. Butler informs the committee that, as yet, there has been no feedback from the CERN Director General about the request for funds for the ISOLDE hall extension, and that a decision about Transnational Funding would not be received until October.

The committee is told that the ISOLDE solid state physics community has reacted favorably about the idea of a cabin.

The committee is informed of an upcoming REX meeting which will discuss the funding for the further upgrade of REX-ISOLDE that would be permitted by the proposed hall extension. O. Kester reports that a meeting has been organised with M. Haas to discuss possible funding from a German-Israeli funding agreement for a low energy beam facility.

9. A.O.B.
- P. Butler brings up the subject of the title of the ISOLDE web page. The committee agrees on the title ‘ISOLDE Facility’.

- M. Lindroos summarizes a recent meeting about the Beta- beam project.

- T. Nilsson leaves the room and the committee discusses the post of ISOLDE scientific coordinator. It is unanimously decided to apply for T. Nilsson’s contract to be extended by approximately six months.

- At the celebratory lunch with C. Detraz, which follows the ISCC meeting, N. Stone is named as the next ISOLDE Collaboration Auditor.

The meeting ends at 11.30 h