ILC candidate site in Japan announced

Press conference held at the University of Tokyo. From left: Sachio Komamiya (Chair, Japan association of high energy physics), Satoru Yamashita (Chair, ILC strategy council), Kiyotomo Kawagoe (Co-chair, ILC site evaluation committee of Japan), Hotishi Yamamoto (Co-chair, ILC site evaluation committee of Japan), Mike Harrison (LCC, Associate director for ILC), Brian Foster (LCC, Regional director for Europe)

The ILC site evaluation committee of Japan announced the result of the assessment on the two candidate sites in Japan in a press conference held at the University of Tokyo on 23 August 2013. As a location, they recommended the Kitakami mountains in the Iwate and Miyagi prefectures.

The search for an appropriate candidate site for the construction of International Linear Collider in Japan has been ongoing since 1999. More than ten candidate sites were announced in 2003. In 2010, the list was further reduced to two with Kitakami in north-east of main-island of Japan, and Sefuri in Kyushu, the south-west island. A process to make the assessment on these two remaining candidates was started in January this year in order to narrow them down, from scientific point of views.

Within Japan, a site evaluation committee of eight members was formed and additional two sub-committees of sixteen technical experts and twelve socio-environmental experts were separately created to provide expertise on issues such as the geological conditions, the environmental impact, the possible problems during construction and the social infrastructure of each candidate site.

After more than 300 hours of meetings, the site evaluation committee made a tentative choice in early July. This choice was then submitted and reviewed by an international review committee. The international review committee recognised that the process to choose the site which to be reviewed had been conducted with great care, and the presented site has excellent geological conditions for tunnelling and stability.

Brian Foster, Linear Collider Collaboration (LCC)’s regional director for Europe read out the message form Lyn Evans, director of LCC saying, “Linear Collider Collaboration will now start the site-specific design based on the Kitakami site”.

The scientific case for building the ILC is very strong and has the support of the world high-energy physics community. “It, together with the LHC at CERN in Geneva, will allow us to take the next steps in understanding our universe,” said Evans.

Read press release from ILC Strategy Council