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1 December 2005

Kuchler Presents ILC Conventional Facilities Update

Vic Kuchler

Yesterday morning on 30 November, Vic Kuchler, an Architect at Fermilab and GDE member, provided an ILC conventional facilities update at Fermilab’s weekly ILC meeting. Kuchler together with Astushi Enomoto of KEK and Jean-Luc Baldy of CERN lead the GDE Conventional Facilities group, representing each of the three regions involved with the ILC.

Meeting via videoconference on a weekly basis, the three regional representatives along with local colleagues recently completed the conventional facilities portion of the Baseline Configuration Document (BCD). Kuchler explained that this chapter of the report includes a brief explanation of the site assessment matrix process and descriptions of the sample site(s) for each region.

While no lines have been drawn on a map at this point, each region outlined a general area for the location of the ILC. Kuchler elaborated on the Americas sample site, located in northern Illinois. After much analysis of different sites in the northern Illinois area, civil engineers determined that a site located , with a north-south alignment in an area bounded on the east by the Fermilab site and on the west in the vicinity DeKalb Illinois, be optimal for the Americas region.

“If the conventional facilities group was asked for an optimal site in the U.S. from the standpoint of cost, locating the machine under Fermilab would take advantage of the existing facilities and infrastructure”, Kuchler said. “The rock under Fermilab is also better and deeper. As you go west, the upper layers of the rock start reducing. This means that you start losing the cushion of the different rock layers that help to control surface vibration effects for the ILC.” Kuchler also pointed out that the tunnel can be angled in such a way to run under power lines and other industrial structures located near Fermilab.

In Europe, sample sites have been selected at CERN and DESY. Asia has also narrowed down their sample site selection. Over the next year, the conventional facilities group will prepare cost estimates for each region and develop more detailed sample sites based upon the design parameters established in the BCD. The Conventional Facilities group looks forward to meeting face to face at the GDE meeting in Frascati, Italy next week. “Our biggest goal for Frascati is to formalize the communication channels between everyone involved”, he said. “There is going to be a lot of reiteration over the next several months, and it is important to have strong communication established.”

--Elizabeth Clements