The installed Capture Cavity II in the Meson building.

At Fermilab, the last year was a busy one for the team that gutted out the New Muon and Meson buildings, preparing them to be test areas for the ILC and Proton Driver. Formerly known as the Superconducting Module and Test Facility (SMTF), the renovated space is now called the ILC Test Area (ILCTA -Meson Detector Building and ILCTA-New Muon). At one of Fermilab's weekly All Experimenters' Meetings in November, Paul Czarapata provided an update on the facility.

"We chose the Meson area because it was an available space that included a long straight beam line, cryogenics and power.", Czarapata said. "The disadvantage was cleaning out the space and doing some infrastructure maintenance."

The Chicago cyclotron magnet must be removed in the New Muon building before the ILC test beam can start.

Starting in October 2004, a group of physicists, engineers and technicians from across the laboratory began the arduous task of cleaning out the Meson Detector and New Muon buildings. The team removed two very large magnets, one over 1500 tons, hundreds of shielding blocks, the remnants of a target station, and numerous magnets, collimators, and miscellaneous devices. "Over the past year, we removed a bone yard of magnets and 1800 tons of steel.", Czarapata said.

The Meson area is now a clean, open area and is currently being prepared to become a horizontal test area for the ILC and a vertical test area for the Proton Driver. In November, cryogens were already being sent through the transfer line to a test cave for Capture Cavity II. Scheduled to be cold and powered with a 200 KW 1.3 GHz klystron in January, CCII has been installed. A large vacuum system is also in the process of being installed to allow the operation of CC II at 1.8K°.

The New Muon building will become a test beam area for the ILC. The current plan is to install three superconducting modules and to move the photo injector from its A0 location to use as a beam source. Before any major work can begin, however, the Chicago cyclotron magnet must be removed. A longtime fixture, the New Muon building was actually constructed around the magnet. A specialized rigging contractor will be used for its removal and storage. Current plans call for the magnet to be removed in the next few months. "As soon as the Chicago Cyclotron Magnet comes out, the ILC test beam will start.", Czarapata said.

--Elizabeth Clements