Present: J. Billowes, K. Blaum, Y. Blumenfeld, P. Butler, R. Catherall, J. Cederkall, L. Fraile, S. Franchoo, M.J. Garcia-Borge (Chairperson),  Y. Kadi, M. Kowalska, N. Marginean, D. Santonocito, S. Siem, K. Riisager,  P. Van Duppen

Excused: S. Harissopulos, M. Henry, A. Jokinen

Absent: R. Losito

The meeting starts at 08:30 h

1. Introductory remarks by the chairperson

The chairperson opens the meeting and D. Santonocito (LNS-Catania) is welcomed to the meeting as the new representative of Italy. Members of the ISCC are asked to briefly introduce themselves.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 59th meeting.

The minutes of the 59th ISCC meeting are accepted after two minor alterations.

3. INTC Matters (P. Butler)

P. Butler informs the committee that the INTC meeting will be the first with reports from the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and that the reports were received in good time and were very helpful to INTC members when reviewing proposals in advance of the meeting. Safety files will also be available to the INTC members for the first time at this meeting and there will be a new nTOF Technical Coordinator, Eric Berthoumieux.

The committee is told that the INTC will decide if proposals will be accepted for its July meeting and ISOLDE Users will be informed in due course. Subsequently it was decided by the INTC not to accept new proposals in July. The committee discusses the possible influence on proposals submitted to ISOLDE of the probable shutdown of GANIL during 2013.

4. Technical developments and BE & EN Department news (R. Catherall) (see overheads)

R. Catherall begins by summarising the work carried out during this year’s shutdown.

• Target Removal: A Type A transport container is being used as requested by RP and the implications are being assessed. A new 5 year buffer zone is under construction.
• Front End #7: Project is progressing well dispite some difficulty in assuring cable passage between the front end faraday cage and separator area. The team involved is thanked for their work on this project.
• REX-Upgrade: Work is still ongoing and REX will probably be unusable until June .
• RILIS: Installation of the new Ti:Sa laser system is in progress.

Other ongoing shutdown work includes the installation of pico-ampere meters for the Faraday cups, moving of tesla meters for the HRS magnets and the project to renovate ISOLDE timing.

R. Catherall then goes on to inform the committee about the status of the safety procedure at ISOLDE. Most interventions in the shielded areas of ISOLDE are classed as level 3 so before each access a long procedure (ALARA) has to be followed. When the procedure is completed the access also has to be “accepted” by S. Myers but in the future this will change; the exact procedure is not yet clear but it will have a high impact on resources and planning with two people already working on this fulltime at ISOLDE.

The committee also hears that CERN is going to announce new rules for visits to controlled radiation areas which will probably make organizing visits to ISOLDE more complicated. Also, to improve traceability, the use of the Timber database (used by the LHC) to monitor machine operation and RIB distribution at ISOLDE is being investigated.

R. Catherall explains to the committee that ISOLDE office space is now under discussion. The Class C laboratory should be removed from building 275 at the request of RP and initial discussions and plans are underway to extend building 115. A proposal was made for moving the ISOLDE offices to building 570 and 275 to be closer to the ISOLDE facility but it was decided that the office space in building 570 was not sufficient and needed too much work. L. Fraile suggests that it should be verified if offices are allowed in building 275 because, in the past, this was not the case. ISOLDE has now been offered the offices on the top floor of building 54 and this option will be investigated.

The committee is also told that a cost estimate is under preparation for the removal and rebuilding of building 507 (light building) which would be funded by CERN. This would include a DAQ room, visitor centre and kitchen outside the Class C perimeter and a machine workshop.

R. Catherall then reports to the committee on the recent meeting of the SGUI (Standing Group for the Upgrade of ISOLDE). New members of the SGUI are M. Kowalska, J. Vollaire (RP) and K. Hanke (Booster operations supervisor). The mandate of the group is to address the short-term upgrades of the ISOLDE facility excluding the HIE-ISOLDE project and to set priorities for future beam development.  The group meets twice a year, the next meeting is planned for 7^th July 2011.  R. Catherall summarises the 2010 developments that were discussed at the SGUI meeting including the successful production of ¹⁴⁰Nd using RILIS, the LIST ion source and the production of ¹²Be using thin foils. The ISCC requests a report on the High Density Uranium Carbide on-line tests.

The ISCC is shown the list of priorities made by the SGUI which includes the development of ³⁰Na beams, the production of ⁷²Kr and of ⁸B beams and the completion of ¹⁴²Sm beam development.

A discussion follows about the possible risks if using long-lived isotopes and the impact it would have on scheduling and users. The report from the SGUI meeting is completed with a summary of the target area upgrade project.

5. Status of HIE-ISOLDE; Report on HIE-ISOLDE IAP meeting (Y. Kadi) (see overheads)

Y. Kadi summarises the status of HIE-ISOLDE. The Spanish grant proposal for 2 projects within the ”Industry for Science Program” has been approved for 250k€ and 2FTE but the proposal within the MiCINN project for cryomudule development has not been retained. The application for a grant of 600k€ for the construction of a fully equipped low-beta cryomodule prototype within the Interregional Program IV A of the European Union has been approved.

He goes on to tell the committee that the new cavity RF tests are taking place at SM18 at CERN and the 2nd prototype cavity is in preparation. Also, the new layout of the facility, including the new buildings has alsmost been fixed.

Y. Kadi then presents the material budget which summarises expenditure during 2010 and planned expenditure during 2011. The civil engineering will make up the major part of spending during 2011. The committee is informed that the budget from CERN has been cut by 7.5% over the 5 year program due to exchange rate fluctuations; a request has been made to the CERN finance not to covert to Swiss francs any funds received for the HIE-ISOLDE project in euros as most expenditure will be in this currency.

The status of assured external funding for HIE-ISOLDE is presented to the committee. There are enough funds for the two cryomodules needed to reach 5.5MeV/u but another 3 million swiss francs are required for other parts of HIE-ISOLDE such as the beam lines.

The committee hears that 7 posts for CATHI fellows were opened at the end of 2010 with a deadline for applications on January 4th 2011. Out of the 30 applicants there were good candidates for 5 of the positions. A second call for applicants is now on-line and includes the CATHI fellow positions for the design studies. The deadline is at the end of February. A 3rd and final call will be made for the 5 remaining positions in the summer of 2011.

Y. kadi then shows the present HIE-ISOLDE schedule with the first high energy radioactive beam being delivered at 5.5MeV/u in the summer of 2014. The remaining equipment required to be able to reach 10MeV/u should be installed by 2016. However, the long CERN wide shutdown planned for 2013 will affect the HIE-ISOLDE schedule, with work to be done by services involved in the LHC shutdown having to be rescheduled.

The first meeting of the HIE-ISOLDE International Advisory Panel was held at CERN  on 20th and 21st January 2011. Y. Kadi tells the committee that the IAP members:

• A. Mueller (IN2P3)
• M. Lindroos (ESS)
• A. Bracco (INFN-LNL)
• B. Laxdal (TRIUMF)
• P. McIntosh (CI)
• P. Bonnal (CERN)

were given presentations by the HIE-ISOLDE project management and the technical coordinators. He goes on to summarise some of the recommendations from the IAP including the need for more support and resources from CERN for the cold RF tests of the prototype cavity and the organisation of a workshop by the IAP to formally review the cavity testing status and provide options for R&D success. Y. Kadi tells the committee that overall the HIE-ISOLDE IAP should give a positive review of the project with their final report due at the end of February.

6. Layout of HIE-ISOLDE experimental hall (M. Kowalska / Y. Blumenfeld) (see overheads)

The staged installation of the new beam transfer line is briefly presented. Stage one would be the installation of a straight line with 2 branches from July 2013 to July 2014, stage two would be the installation of a bend which would mean a second move for Miniball and stage three would be the installation of the TSR. Y. Blumenfeld explains that it is not yet known if the experimental stations will have to be enclosed due to safety issues; this would, of course, increase the cost. A discussion follows about whether or not the physics cases for the spectrometer and the TSR should be clarified along with the funding requirements and combined into a global package which could stimulate more external involvement and funding.

The idea of presenting a single package is not retained by the committee.

7. Scheduling and PH Department news (M. Kowalska / Y. Blumenfeld) (see overheads)

M. Kowalska begins by summarising the requested, scheduled and delivered RIB shifts

during the 2010 ISOLDE running period. Of the 350 RIB shifts delivered 76% were used by

41 approved INTC experiments. The shift distribution over the period from 2000 up to and

including 2010 is presented and the committee told that in 2010 56% of possible shifts

were used which is at a similar level to previous years. M. Kowalska then goes on to show the

committee the distribution of shifts between the different fields of physics and a discusion

follows about the drop in the number of astrophysics experiments which is attributed to

the overlap between physics fields.

The use of resources during 2010 is then summarised. In total 25 targets were used with

with 244 shifts using actinide targets. RILIS was used for 158.5 RIB shifts by 20 different

IS experiments which corresponds to approximately 2000 hours of online work. REX-

ISOLDE was used for about 40% of INTC shifts which is a similar percentage to previous

years.

M. Kowalska then presents the latest accelerator schedule for 2011. Protons will first be

delivered to ISOLDE on 25th April and physics will start on 2nd May. November 20th will

see the end of proton delivery giving a total of 29 weeks of physics. In December the CERN

Research Board approved 34% of proton pulses for ISOLDE during 2011.

The status of some ISOLDE experiments is then reviewed:

• Beta-NMR: Tests of the scintillator efficiency are planned for week 6 and the installation of the chamber should be completed in the spring so the system should be ready for the first online tests during the 2011 running period. Both PhD students are also analysing data from the 2010 MINIBALL campaign.
• WITCH: Additional shielding for the REX mass separator was installed and tested in December 2010. The first results show that the transmission and mass scalability through REX-TRAP and Linac can be regained at lower WITCH magnetic fields which is enough for WITCH tests.
• ISOLTRAP: The decay-spectroscopy station had its first online run in November 2010.

The committee is told that a cleanup of the offline laboratory (bldg 275) was

completed in December while a cleanup of the ISOLDE extension will take place in week 6.

M. Kowalska informs the committee that safety files are now required by the CERN HSE

unit for all CERN experiments; WITCH and CRIS are being used as test cases and their

files are almost ready. Visiting installations which at present provide a safety table in INTC

proposals will be able to use a reduced safety file template which is now in preparation. The

PH-DSO Christopher Griggs is very happy with the progress of safety at ISOLDE.

Finally, the committee hears that the ”Latest News” page of the new ISOLDE website is in

operation and the ISOLDE publication list has been updated for 2009 and 2010; a request

for publications will go out with this years beam requests. Users are invited to check

the list and send to J. Weterings any reference that may be missing.

Y. Blumenfeld informs the committee that CERN has confirmed that the ISOLDE group

budget for 2011 will be 285kCHF. At the moment the ISOLDE group has two students (K.

Lynch and H. Tornqvist), two CERN fellows (D. Yordanov and T. Cocolios) and one Marie-

Curie fellow (J. Pakarinen). There should be an opening for a new fellow at the November

selection meeting.

The committee is told that the long CERN shutdown will now take place in 2013 but it has

not yet been decided if it will be for 15 or 19 months; users will be informed when CERN

management has taken a decision.

Y. Blumenfeld tells the committee of the most recent ISOLDE PRLs and some other

important publications. ISOLDE users are requested to mention ISOLDE in the abstract

of their publications so they are more easily found by search engines.

It is decided to hold the 2011 ISOLDE Workshop and Users meeting from 5th to 7th

December and it will include a session to celebrate 10 years of REX-ISOLDE.

8. ENSAR News (Y. Blumenfeld)

The committee is told that during the period from September to November 2010 52440CHF was paid out as subsistence to ISOLDE Users. The next call for subsistence requests for the period from April to August 2011 will be sent out as soon as the ISOLDE schedule is finalized.

Y. Blumenfeld goes on to state that J. Thiboud’s contract has been extended until August 2013  and from September 2011 he will be paid 50% by the collaboration and 50% by ENSAR so will be available to all ISOLDE experiments to work on small scale upgrades.

The committee is informed that an applied fellow will be hired in May for a period of two years; the application deadline for this position is March 3^rd 2011. The fellow will prepare a new data acquisition system for ISOLDE and after a short discussion the ISCC agrees that this system should be compatible with those used at as many other facilities as possible.

9. Budget 2010 and 2011 (Y. Blumenfeld)

The collaboration and HIE-ISOLDE expenditure for 2010 is summarized and a discussion follows about how to increase the collaboration’s income in the long term. One way would be to encourage new members; while Korea is a very good prospect, Russia and Japan are possibilities which should be explored. Since the yearly collaboration contribution has remained static for many years the ISCC representatives are asked to enquire in their own countries, before the next meeting in July, what the response would be to an increase in the contribution.

10. First report of Search Committee for next Group leader and discussion on next actions (K. Blaum)

K. Blaum begins by informing the committee that M. Garcia-Borge has resigned from the search committee due to a conflict of interests.

He explains that the search committee sees the main goals of the next ISOLDE Physics group leader to be:

• To lobby strongly for the missing funds for HIE-ISOLDE
• To consolidate the collaboration
• To push to bring new novel instrumentation to ISOLDE
• To maintain and improve visibility of ISOLDE both in and outside CERN

The search committee discussed a total of 12 possible candidates and a short list of just 3 was made. However there will be an open call for this position in March 2011, with an application deadline in April, so new candidates could emerge.

The ISCC decides that after the announcement of this position is made Y. Blumenfeld will contact all three people shortlisted by the search committee clearly stating that it is an open call is being made.

11. A.O.B

• The next ISCC meeting will be held on Wednesday 6th July 2011.
• The next SGUI meeting is scheduled for 7th July 2011 at 14:00.

The meeting ends at 12:45.