Present: B. Blank, K. Blaum, Y. Blumenfeld, R. Catherall, J. Cederkall, L. Fraile (P.T. via Vidyo), H. Fynbo (replacing K. Riisager),  M.J. Garcia-Borge, P. Greenlees, M. Henry (P.T. via Vidyo),  D. Jenkins, Y. Kadi, M. Kowalska, D. Santonocito, N. Severijns, S. Siem, L. Schweikhard

Excused: N. Marginean, K. Riisager,  

Absent: U. Datta Pramanik, S. Harissopulos, R. Losito

Invited: S. Marzari (P.T.), M. Venhart (P.T. via Skype), W. Venturini (P.T.)

The meeting starts at 09:00 h

1. Introductory remarks by the chairperson

The chairperson opens the meeting and welcomes the committee as well as M. Venhart, the invited speaker representing the Slovak nuclear physics community. The above mentioned members of the committee are excused.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 71st meeting.

The minutes of the 71^st ISCC meeting are accepted without any alterations.

3. HIE-ISOLDE installations and HW commissioning plans (W. Venturini) (see presentation)

The presentation begins with a summary of the main installation and commissioning activities that must be completed. Regarding installation, priority will be given to those items inside the tunnel. An overview of the status of the installation is shown as follows:

• General infrastructure in good shape

• HEBT: all magnet supports, cabling and piping are completed

• Magnets:

  • Dipoles: all 6 are at CERN and 2 have been accepted

  • Steerers: all have been accepted and 3 installed

• All magnets and diagnostics boxes (DB) for XT00 (tunnel part) are installed

• All 6 short DBs installed

• All 9 long DBs are at CERN and acceptance tests are in progress

• Power converters:

  • Dipoles: 2 out of 7 produced with one already tested

  • Quadrupoles: 3 out of 30 produced with 6 more expected end of February

  • Steerers: all 30 produced with 6 ready for powering

• RF amplifiers and cabling are in place

Cryogenics facilities are progressing well with the warm compressors, cold box, dewar and jumper boxes all in place and work ongoing to close the transfer lines.

The committee is told that the re-installation of REX-ISOLDE is on track with RF/beam

commissioning planned to start on June 15^th.

In preparation for commissioning of HIE-ISOLDE, the committee is informed that documents

regarding the commissioning procedure have already been prepared and approved. W.

Venturini then shows a breakdown of Cryo-Module (CM) commissioning into specific activities

with the estimated time for each activity, giving a total of 45 days.

A schedule for the remaining installation and commissioning is presented; there is now a 2

week delay for CM1 but this should be recovered due to assembly being faster than planned.

The new vacuum vessel for CM2 will arrive at the end of February so that assembly can start

once CM1 is finished. The committee is told that installation of CM1 in the Linac is planned

for March 2015 and CM1 cold tests should take place from May to July. Dry runs of individual

systems will take place whenever possible. Machine checkout will be carried out at the end of

July but software and controls will be tested before this date. Beam commissioning is planned

from week 35 (end of August).

In answer to questions from the committee, W. Venturini states that both tools and

procedure are in place for the critical transport of the cryo-modules from SM18, where they

are assembled and tested, to ISOLDE. He tells the committee that a critical point in the

schedule will be the cool down of the cavities which should take place in May and the testing

of their performance from which results should be available in mid-June.

4. Status of the HIE-ISOLDE Project: Cryomodules and HEBT installations (Y. Kadi) (see presentation)

Y. Kadi begins by summarizing the outcome the Cost and Schedule Review held on 27^th October 2014 including the decision to go ahead with the procurement of the remaining parts for Phase II and the need to evaluate the spare parts policy.

The committee is then shown the mitigation options and actions endorsed by the Accelerator Technology Sector Management Board (ATS-MB) on 16^th December 2014. This included the decision to test CM1 directly in the Linac, skipping the test in SM18 which helped to recuperate some of the 2 month delay in starting assembly reported at the ISCC meeting in November 2014. The next ATS-MB will be held in mid-March 2015.

Y. Kadi then reports on the status of Phase I. The assembly of CM1 is well underway, thanks to the SM18 assembly team, with a blank cavity mounting successfully completed and three cavities rinsed and ready to be installed. The next steps in the cavity assembly are:

• A global leak test with He circuits pressurized

• Cavity and ancillaries assembly

• Insertion in the vacuum vessel

A final leak test

A new pressurized test has recently been added to this procedure which is aimed at ensuring

quality control. The committee is told that CM1 is expected to be ready for transport to

ISOLDE in week 12 of 2015 allowing for its installation in week 14. The present status of the

baseline schedule adopted in April 2014 is shown which indicates that the sectors lagging

behind are mostly connected to the delay in starting cryomodule assembly which is why the

decision was made to skip the testing in SM18. However there are also some delays related to

the HEBT but the aim of physics in October 2015 is still achievable.

The status of components, planning and manpower for CM2 is then summarized. Seven cavities

of the nine that have been assembled so far (7 from RI and 2 from CERN) have been

sputtered and the five best performing cavities have been chosen for CM1. The next batch of

five cavities will be ready in June which should mean that assembly of CM2 can start

immediately after CM1 is completed. Unlike CM1, CM2 will be cold tested in SM18 and should

be ready for installation as of week 43 of 2015 but at present its installation is planned

during the winter shutdown ready for HIE-ISOLDE physics in April/May 2016.

Y. Kadi then details the status of Phase II regarding the components, cavities and solenoids for CM3 and CM4. The procurement for Phase II is being prepared and should be launched, subject to CERN management approval, in March 2015. The assembly of CM3 can in principle begin as soon as CM2 is completed provided all the necessary parts have arrived at CERN. The present plan is for CM3 and CM4 to be finished towards the end of 2016 and installed in the 2016/2017 shutdown allowing physics with 4 high-beta cryomodules in 2017. This is, however, only realistic if:

• Procurement is launched very soon and remains EN-MME supported

• The full complement of the assembly and logistics team remains in place

Support teams continue to be flexible and highly committed

Y. Kadi states that, based on the income secured so far by the collaboration, the CERN loan

and the special contribution made by CERN, the cash balance of the machine part of the HIE-

ISOLDE project shows that Phase I is fully funded while 0.7MCHF are missing for Phase II

and 5.6MCHF are missing just for the components of Phase III. M.J. Garcia Borge clarifies

that, as stated in the minutes of the ISCC meeting of June 24^th 2014 “The committee agrees

that the collaboration will provide funds for Phase II at the rate of 400kCHF per year from

2016 until the machine part of Phase II is fully funded”. Y. Kadi tells the committee that a

new budget for Phase II is under preparation to be submitted to CERN management for

approval and inclusion in the next medium term plan (MTP2015) including a request for

0.8MCHF for manpower and 0.5MCHF for spares. A list of the spares that are required at

the end of Phase II compared with what is available at the moment is presented and the

committee told that the spares policy has now been defined and submitted to management

for approval. The evolution of the project since April 2014 in the EVM (Earned Value

Management) system is shown and it indicates some delay in payments which mostly

correspond to the real delay of the cryogenic system and the power converters.

It is announced that the next HIE-ISOLDE IAP and steering committee meetings will be held

in May/June 2015.

5. INTC matters (K. Blaum)

K. Blaum informed the committee that at the CERN Research Board meeting of 3^rd December 2014 all the INTC proposals put forward were approved. A report on the status of the HIE-ISOLDE project was made at this meeting. At the Research Board meeting in June this year a decision will be made, in conjunction with the CERN departments, on whether to extend protons to ISOLDE until mid-December. The extension will happen if HIE-ISOLDE has started otherwise the proton beam will stop mid-November and the 2016 startup will be brought forward to mid-March. Whatever happens the CERN machine shutdown will be at least 15 weeks long.

The committee is told that February 2015 INTC meeting received 11 proposals, 4 clarification letters, 4 Letters of Intent and 11 status reports. The two new members of the INTC are Raquel Crespo from Instituto Tecnico, Portugal and Thomas Prokscha from PSI, Switzerland who replace J. Vaagen  and Z. Salman, respectively .

6. Presentation of the candidates for the ISOLDE coordinator position, discussion and final decision.

Very high quality presentations are given by the four candidates shortlisted from the 17 applicants for the ISOLDE Scientific Coordinator position. E. Rapisarda is chosen for the position by a majority vote.

7. MEDICIS: status, plans, interlocks and coactivity with ISOLDE (S. Marzari) (see presentation)

S. Marzari summarises the status of the MEDICIS project which will use the 90% of protons

normally lost to the beam dump after the HRS target at ISOLDE to produce radio isotopes.

The work already completed is presented and then the activities that still need to be

completed, such as the ventilation, robot handling, shielding doors and off-line separator,  are

discussed. The committee is told that the schedule to finish the work during 2015 is very

tight but final commissioning is planned for the beginning of 2016 with start-up of the facility

mid-way through the same year.

It is explained that the MEDICIS project benefits from experience gained at ISOLDE

regarding such topics as industrial Kuka robots and failure risk analysis, storage shelves and

movable shielding, Front End and separator design as well as many years of ISOLDE operation

and maintenance. It is presented that, in return, ISOLDE will benefit from MEDICIS in the

following ways:

• Upgrade of the nuclear ventilation system

• Upgrade of the access system

• Use of the RCS (Rail Conveyor System) like a ”RABIT” for irradiation samples

• Use of the RCS for camera inspection during handling and recovery operations

• Use of the RCS for ISOLDE targets handling

• New hot target storage for 112 targets of which 80% is planned for ISOLDE

• Connection between new storage and new ISOLDE hot cell for target dismantling allowing remote handling without human intervention

Use of 80% of the 37m² buffer area inside the new MEDICIS building will be for ISOLDE

In answer to questions from the committee, S. Marzari explains that when MEDICIS contains

a target it is still possible to work on a UC target in the class A laboratory but that when a

robot is handling a MEDICIS target it will not be possible to move an ISOLDE target at the

same time. Hence logistics will have to be planned very carefully.

8. Technical activities during shutdown (R. Catherall) ) (see presentation)

R. Catherall commences by summarizing the target development that has taken place since the last ISCC meeting including the new TiC-Carbon Black nanocomposite target that has been successfully operated online with a surface and laser ion source.

Then the news from RILIS is presented to the committee. This includes the six new ionization schemes developed in 2014 (Li, Cr, Ge, Ba, Hg, Ho) and those planned for 2015 (Se, Te), as well as the progress made with the high resistance-cavities with the investigation of the use of promising new materials and the design of a new mount for the cavities. The committee is told that the new RILIS time-resolved ion beam diagnostics will be installed on the ISOLDE CBO line during 2015 which will enable RILIS-ion time structure measurements and is essential for optimizing the fast beam micro-gating for increased RILIS selectivity. R. Catherall informs the committee that the introduction of the RILIS on-call operation system, RMPS (Robust RILIS Machine Protection System), has been a success with 4 “on-call” runs in 2014 which left more time for RILIS setup and R&D for new or improved RILIS beams.

The on-going work at REX-ISOLDE is summarized including the large amount of consolidation activity on the REX Room Temperature Linac. R. Catherall then presents the status of work in the target area including MEDICIS and the PAD/MAD Access system. The committee is told that the new design of the HRS target Radhard coupling piston encountered problems in 2014 A standard sealed piston is to be used during 2015 in both target units and the shortfall in the Radhard version design will be investigated.

The progress that has been made towards the final design of the new Fast Tape Station, which is planned for 2016, is discussed. Finally the important steps for the technical team for the 2015 startup of the facility are listed building up to the first protons on 7^th April.

9. News of the UK grant (D. Jenkins) ( see presentation)

D. Jenkins presents the ISOL-SRS project including the international collaboration and the UK participants in the project which has been successful in obtaining a substantial grant from the STFC in the UK. He explains the motivation behind bringing the ion storage ring (TSR) to ISOLDE and installing both internal and external detectors which will allow detection of both lighter and heavier nuclei respectively. A brief overview of the science addressed by these spectrometer systems is shown and the committee is told that the key priority of the ISOL-SRS project is to develop spectrometer systems for the TSR storage ring in order to fully exploit the range of radioactive beams from HIE-ISOLDE. The possibility of using laser spectroscopy to measure charge radii and moments of unstable light nuclei is briefly explained and then the distribution of development activities between the UK institutes involved in the project is presented.

The committee is told about the steps taken to get funding for the project in the UK and that by November 2014 the STFC had awarded a total of 4.8 million pounds to the 4 year project which officially started in January 2015.  However this means that the detectors and read-out for the internal and external spectrometers have been funded but not the magnet for the external spectrometer nor the internal gas jet target. The silicon systems should be ready, according to the project plan, by the end of 2018 and the external spectrometer could be deployed in the ISOLDE hall, to be moved to the TSR when appropriate, but both the magnet and funding for it needs to be found. Certain other activities that are not yet funded, for example the gas-jet target, could be taken over by other groups which are very welcome to join the international collaboration.

10. Nuclear Physics in Slovakia and plans related to ISOLDE (M. Venhart) (see presentation)

M. Venhart summarises the structure of the nuclear industry and nuclear research in Slovakia. The Slovak Academy of Sciences is the top research institution in the country and incorporates 57 research institutes, of which the Institute of Physics is one, in three divisions. The research activities of the Department of Nuclear Physics of the Institute of Physics are then summarized including neutron physics, nuclear fission research and the Tandetron accelerator that will start operation in 2016.

The involvement of the Institute of Physics at ISOLDE is then summarised from the first serious contact in 2008 with the beta delayed fission of ¹⁸⁰Tl experiment IS466 through the beta decay of odd-Hg’s experiment IS521, which took place in August 2014 using the TATRA (TApe TRAnsport) system, to the more recently approved transfer induced fission experiment IS581. Future plans for the TATRA setup at ISOLDE are also discussed.

The committee is told that Slovakia would like to become a member of the ISOLDE collaboration and asks for the support of the committee in order to help find the funding required.

The ISOLDE Collaboration would unanimously welcome Slovakia as a new member.

11. Experiments & Schedule & Access to the hall (M. Kowalska) (see presentation)

M. Kowalska begins by summarizing the physics that has taken place at ISOLDE since the last ISCC meeting and the plans of the fixed experimental setups for 2015. The committee is told that in 2014 a total of 244 shifts were provided with 208.5 for IS experiments, 6.5 for LOIs and the rest for machine development. The average number of shifts per day for IS experiments was 1.55 which compares with 1.61 in 2012 and 1.55 in 2011. After the February 2015 INTC meeting the balance of approved shifts at ISOLDE is 1550 with 735 for low-energy experiments, 130 for REX-ISOLDE and 650 for HIE-ISOLDE. The distribution of shifts between different areas of physics for 2014 is presented showing two thirds of shifts going to nuclear structure experiments.

The committee is informed that, in 2015, the first protons will be received by ISOLDE on April 7^th with physics starting some days later. Low-energy physics will take place until mid-October when HIE-ISOLDE physics is due to begin. The decision on whether protons will be available until mid-November or mid-December has not yet been taken; the status of HIE-ISOLDE will be one of the deciding factors.

M. Kowalska explains that from 2015 all experimental setups, fixed and travelling, will require safety clearance before running. For travelling setups, the experiment spokesperson will be contacted a few weeks before the run and small safety visits will take place once setting up has started.

The committee is informed that in 2015 all ISOLDE users will have to have completed the four online courses ( General safety, the ISOLDE RP course "RP Awareness for ISOLDE - Fundamentals", the CERN RP course for Supervised Radiation Areas and the Electrical Awareness Course  ) and the 2-hour hands on ISOLDE radiation protection course which is now obligatory for everyone, not just new users and people getting new dosimeters. Also, there will be a new 1.5-hour ISOLDE electrical safety course which will take place along with the hands-on RP course and which must be taken by all ISOLDE users. Numerous other courses are available to ISOLDE users, such as a cryogenic safety, mechanical workshop safety and crane operation; please note that users are not allowed to perform operations for which they are not trained and authorized.

M. Kowalska concludes by informing the committee that from March 2015 onwards the access to ISOLDE for users will be via their dosimeter from the Jura side. Access to the HIE-ISOLDE worksite will still only be permitted for local physicists when moving equipment.

12. Building 508 and 275 (M. Kowalska) (see presentation)

The committee is told that by March 2015 ISOLDE has to liberate half of building 275. Transparent rules will be used to share the remaining space between all groups at ISOLDE:

• Room on the ground floor should be used for big equipment that has to be quickly accessible during beamtimes or that is fragile.

• Space in the SSP laboratory should be used for test setups.

Shelves and cupboards on the first floor should be used for smaller equipment.

M. Kowalska informs the committee that physics users are now moving into building 508 and

things such as signal cables from the ISOLDE hall, the kitchen, equipment for the

visitor/meeting room and CERN locks are being ordered. Ongoing matters include the closed

cooling water system, the vacuum gas exhaust and the opening for SSP gases and fume

cupboard.

13. News from the ISOLDE Group (M.J.G. Borge) (see presentation)

M.J.G. Borge summarises the present manpower situation in the ISOLDE Physics Group.

• Associate: Haraldur Palle Gunnlaugsson (February 2015 to January 2016).

• Corresponding Associate: Janne Pakarinen (July to December 2015)

• Fellows: Monika Stachura (April 2013 to February 2015), Miguel Madurga (June 2014 to May 2016), Stephan Ettenbauer (June 2014 to January 2017), Akira Miyazaki (June 2014 to May 2016), Kara Lynch (January 2015 to December 2017) and Torben Molholt ( February 2015 to January 2017). The next application deadline for fellows is 2^nd March 2015 and good candidates for a research fellowship are requested to apply.

• Doctoral Students: Razvan Lica, Fixed decay station doctoral student (September 2014 to August 2017); Stavroula Pallada (Doctoral Program with Greece for life sciences) (March 2014 to February 2017), Laura Grob (Doctoral Program with Germany) (June 2014 to May 2017) and Andre Welker (Doctoral Program with Germany) (February 2015 to January 2018).

• User Support: Jenny Weterings (Indefinite contract with University of Oslo, ongoing)

M.J.G. Borge tells the committee that the ISOLDE Workshop 50^th Anniversary edition, held
at CERN 15^th to 17^th December 2014, was a great success with almost 150 participants.
Recordings of the presentations given by all the former ISOLDE group leaders at the Golden
Jubillee Session which took place on Wednesday 17^th December can be found at
https://indico.cern.ch/event/334117/other-view?view=standard  and photos that were taken
are available at http://cds.cern.ch/record/1977917?ln=en . During the session the CERN
Director General presented prizes, donated by Caen, for the two best posters (T. Day
Goodacre, M. Delonca) and presentations given by young researchers ( S. Hellgartner, M. Barbosa). 
The committee is informed that two separator courses will be organized; the chosen week has changed to 7^th to 10^th April. The next ISOLDE Workshop and Users meeting will take place at CERN 2^nd-4^th December 2015. The SASc-ISOLDE Spring Workshop on GEANT4 (SWG 2015) which will be held from 26th April to 1st May in Casta-Papiernicka in Slovakia is still accepting students.

M.J. G. Borge then moves on to summarise the use of ENSAR TNA funds at ISOLDE during the project which ran from 1^st September 2010 to 31^st December 2014. A total of 418 users received TNA payments, some several times. The number of subsistence days paid out was 2481 to users from 90 different experiments.

The status of the EURISOL DF proposal is presented which includes the goals of the project and how the tasks would be distributed between the member facilities.

The committee is informed of the present status of NICOLE and the plans of the NICOLE collaboration for 2015. According to T. Ohtsubo, they hope to test the entire setup before the next ISCC meeting in June at which he will give a presentation.

M.J.G. Borge goes on to summarise the current status of the collaboration income and expenditure. The committee is shown statements from M. Henry and U. Datta Pramanik about the status of funding the membership of the ISOLDE Collaboration of Ireland and India respectively.

Finally, M.J.G. Borge presents the proposed changes to user registration in the CERN Greybook. At present the Greybook shows the IS experiment and the institutes that are linked to it, the teamleader/deputy of each institute and the users from each institute who are registered under the IS experiment. Very often the list of users is incomplete as most users only register under one IS experiment and not under all the experiments in which they are involved. It is proposed that users will now be able to register under ISOLDE instead of a specific IS experiment. This will simplify the registration process but will mean that only the institutes and teamleader/deputy will be visible under a specific IS experiment in the Greybook http://greybook.cern.ch/ . The proposed changes are unanimously approved by the ISCC members.

14. A.O.B

• The mandate of Y. Blumenfeld as the Chairman of the ISCC is extended by one year.

Y. Kadi informs the committee that Algeria has approved ten PhD positions at CERN to be split between ISOLDE and ATLAS. The implementation of the positions will take place gradually; for 2015 the incorporation of one PhD student is expected at ISOLDE.

15. Dates of next meeting

The next ISCC meeting will take place at CERN on Tuesday 30^th June 2015 starting at 09:00.

The meeting ends at 17:00h and it is followed by a visit of the new building 508 where an aperitif was offered in the visitors room.

N.B. The overheads mentioned in the above minutes can be found via http://indico.cern.ch/event/368270/ .