Rika Takahashi | 17 March 2011As many people in the world already know, Japan is currently dealing with its worst disaster: Japan's biggest earthquake on record and the fourth largest in history. Thousands of lives have been lost. Tens of thousands people are forced to evacuate and live without basic necessities. Hundreds of thousands are still missing.
Category: Feature | Tagged: earthquake, Japan, KEK
Rika Takahashi | 27 January 2011There is a question almost always asked when talking about science - “OK, this is interesting. But is it useful for something?” Not too many scientists working on basic science are good at answering this question. “Dr. Masatoshi Koshiba sometimes says that the neutrino, his main research subject, is not useful at all. Well, a Nobel laureate could say that, but not us. I try to talk more about useful accelerators these days,” said Atsuto Suzuki, the Director General of KEK, at a symposium held in Kyoto, Japan, in November, which was organised by the Advanced Accelerator Association promoting science and technology (AAA).
Category: Around the World | Tagged: AAA, accelerator research, Japan
Rika Takahashi | 9 December 2010Designing and fabricating an optimal accelerating cavity is not so simple. There are two important parameters scientists are looking for: the gradient of 35 megavolts per meter (MV/m) and the quality factor (Q0) of greater than 0.8×10^10. A Japanese cavity now fulfilled those requirements for the first time at a test which took place at the Superconducting radiofrequency Test Facility (STF) at KEK, adding momentum towards future mass production.
Category: Feature | Tagged: accelerating gradient, cavity gradient, KEK, Kyoto camera, nine-cell cavity, quality factor, STF
Rika Takahashi | 24 November 2010What will happen when the ILC is built? One hopes discoveries will change the way we see the universe. It will answer the questions about what the universe is made of. And maybe it will help generate new Nobel Prize winners...
Category: Feature | Tagged: ILC site, Japan
Leah Hesla and Rika Takahashi | 28 October 2010Fermilab and KEK scientists recently hooked up a new cavity tuning system to the various cavities in the so-called cavity-tuner zoo at KEK. This zoo, comprising eight superconducting radiofrequency cavities fabricated by four different vendors from three different regions, was the testing ground for a new development in what is called Lorentz force detuning (LFD) compensation.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Fermilab, KEK, LFD compensation, Lorentz force detuning
Rika Takahashi | 30 September 2010On 27 September, the Japan's local winners of the first Global Particle Photo Walk were announced. This Photowalk was held at five particle physics laboratories in the world on 7 August (see Feature Story this week). The winning photo taken by Yuki Hayashi features scientists working at the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF) at KEK. But they are not Japanese scientists. They are three of the nine French scientists and engineers who were visiting the ATF from the end of July to install and test their four-mirror optical cavity.
Category: Feature | Tagged: ATF, Japan, photography, photowalk
Rika Takahashi | 26 August 2010Vietnam and Japan have been nurturing cooperative relationship in many fields for many years. For the field of science and technology, both governments signed the Japan-Vietnam Science and Technology Co-operation Agreement to promote and deepen the co-operation in science and technology in 2006. Following year, Shinzo Abe, then Prime minister of Japan, proposed at the East Asia Summit (EAS) to launch a youth exchange initiative totaling 35 billion Yen over five years including the invitation to 6,000 young people from the member countries of ASEAN and EAS to Japan, which was accepted with great welcome. Now, these invitations are bringing many Vietnamese scientists to KEK.
Category: Around the World | Tagged: Asia, EAS, East Asia Summit, Japan, Vietnam
Rika Takahashi | 8 July 2010On 1-2 June, the review on the design study of the ILC conventional facility in mountain regions was held at KEK, Japan, and the final review report was submitted last week by the review panel lead by Vic Kuchler of Fermilab to Seiya Yamaguchi, head of KEK's Linear Collider Office and to Marc Ross, project manager of the Global Design Effort (GDE) in charge of the conventional facility study (GDE/CFS).
Category: Feature | Tagged: Asia, CFS, conventional facilities, single tunnel
Rika Takahashi | 1 July 2010The ILC will have an ultra-cold and complex heart made of niobium, a rare, soft, grey, and ductile transition metal. Some 18,000 radio frequency (RF) accelerating cavities for the ILC will be made of niobium, which becomes superconductor when cooled to nearly absolute zero. The global annual production of niobium in 2007 was 58,000 tonnes, and it is expected to grow up to 45 percent more in 2010 with a positive trend towards economic recovery. Although it is a 'rare' material, the reserves of niobium are assumed to be enough to cover the current world demand for 500 years
Category: Feature | Tagged: industrialisation, niobium, SRF industrialisation
