Interactions News Wire #72-04
17 December 2004
http://www.interactions.org
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Source: CERN
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: December 17, 2004
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PR20.04
17.12.2004

CERN confirms goal of 2007 start-up for LHC

Geneva, 17 December 2004. Speaking at the 131st session of CERN  Council
today, the Organization's Director General, Robert Aymar, confirmed that
the top priority is to maintain the goal of starting up CERN's Large
Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2007.

Preparations for the LHC project are advancing well, with half of the most
technologically challenging components - the cold masses for the dipole
magnets that will steer high-energy protons around the LHC's 27 kilometre
ring - having been delivered to CERN. In October the new transfer line
that delivers protons from the Super Proton Synchrotron to the LHC tunnel
worked at the first attempt. The line is based on 540 magnets supplied by
the Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, and has been set
up with the help of a team from this Institute.

The discovery in 2004 of defects in components, newly installed, of the
system that will distribute cryogenic cooling fluids around the ring meant
that installation, begun in 2003, had to be put on hold.  However, after
intense collaboration between CERN and the company concerned, technical
corrections have been made, and in October the manufacture of new unflawed
components began.  Repair of the faulty components started in November at
CERN and the first modified items have been successfully installed in the
LHC tunnel.

Various options to make up the delay have been considered, and a strategy
of actions has been established to limit the impact on the overall
schedule for the LHC. One option that was considered was to shut down the
SPS accelerator in 2006 in order to divert human resources to LHC
installation. However, this will not be necessary, assuming that
technicians can be seconded for a few months from other laboratories
working with accelerators to help with LHC commissioning in order to
maintain start-up in 2007.

A status report on the four large experiments for the LHC - ATLAS, CMS,
LHCb and ALICE - was presented to Council. The report recognised the great
progress being made, although the schedules to be ready for collisions in
the LHC in 2007 will be tight. However, there is confidence that with some
effort the experiments will be ready on time.

The SPS programme reached a natural pause at the end of the 2004 run, with
most of its approved experiments reaching their conclusion. The SPS will
not run in 2005. "This allows the community to take stock of where they
are," said Dr Aymar, "and to plan for an exciting and well-focused
programme for future fixed-target physics at CERN." This procedure started
in September in the Swiss village of Villars, where the SPS Committee met
to set priorities for 2006 and beyond. As a result, Council will be
examining proposals for new experiments during the course of 2005.

Elections
Ken J. Peach (GB) was elected as Chairman of the Scientific Policy
Committee for a term of one year from 1 January 2005.
Mario Calvetti (IT), Ken J. Peach (GB) and Frank Wilczek (US) were
re-elected to the Scientific Policy Committee for a term of three years
from 1 January 2005.
Enrique Fernandez (ES), Daniel Fournier (FR) and Donald Harthill (US) were
elected to the Scientific Policy Committee for a period of three years
from 1 January 2005.

The President of Council and one Vice-President, the Chairman and
Vice-Chairman of the Finance Committee, and the Chairman of TREF were
re-elected for a period of one year from 1 January 2005.