MINERvA gets CD-3

Level 2 manager Howard Budd observes as technician Dan Ruggiero, and technical associate Heng Bao Zeng, inject epoxy at the gluing station into optical connectors holding optical cables that will become part of the MINERvA detector.

MINERvA collaborators have a lot more to celebrate this season than the holidays.

The neutrino experiment recently received construction approval from DOE and overcame a large hurdle to building the detector. "We are really excited, believe me," said Project Manager Deborah Harris. "The collaboration will be together this week for a group meeting, so that's when we'll get to celebrate."

Prior to construction approval, the group completed a six-month R&D program to make the ends of 4,500 optical cables opaque while meeting fire safety requirements. The cables carry light from particle interactions in the detector to sensitive measuring devices and need protection from outside light. But traditional fire-proofing chemicals compromised the cables' performance.

Level 2 manager Howard Budd watches as technical associate Janina Gielata puts epoxy in a boot mold at Lab G to create a light-tight cover for optical cables for the MINERvA experiment.

Howard Budd, level 2 manager from University of Rochester and veteran optical cable-maker for CMS and CDF, searched for an epoxy vendor that could fix the problem without introducing a new glitch. "It seems like we had months of meetings where Howard reported on flame characteristics from failed burn tests" said Kevin McFarland, experiment co-spokesperson. Finally, Budd found a rare fire-retardant paint that didn't expand when heated and a small business eager to modify its epoxy formula to suit MINERvA's needs. "It has been pretty frustrating, but we are starting to go into production," Budd said.

That was perfect timing. That same month the DOE granted the 85-member collaboration Critical Decision-3 approval. The approval specifies a total project cost of $16.8 million, including $5.8 million planned for FY2008.

A small portion of the project was approved in March to allow collaborating universities to purchase a few items with long fabrication times. For the rest, collaborators must wait for Congress to pass the 2008 federal budget.

"CD-3 is an important milestone," said experiment co-spokesman Jorge Morfin. "It is also a direct testament to the hard work of the project manager and all the managers of the different sub-projects as well as the terrific support from the PPD and Directorate."

MINERvA collaborators are half-way through building a full-scale prototype of the experiment, which will study how neutrinos interact with matter using four different kinds of nuclei. It will consist of 20 modules, essentially making a very thin detector to test design. The final detector will consist of 108 modules. Collaborators expect to test the prototype with cosmic rays by summer, and hope to start commissioning the final detector in the NuMI near detector hall by the end of 2009.

--Tona Kunz

CERN Director General reports on LHC progress

From CERN press release, Dec. 14, 2007

CERN Director General Robert Aymar today delivered an end of year status report at the 145th meeting of Council, the Organization's governing body. Dr Aymar reported a year of excellent progress towards the goal of starting physics research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in summer 2008. Council also approved a budget for CERN in 2008 that will allow consolidation of CERN's aging infrastructure to begin, along with preparations for an intensity upgrade for the LHC, by 2016.

The LHC is CERN's new flagship research facility, bringing together some 9000 researchers from around the world. Approved by the CERN Council in 1996, it will begin operation in 2008 and has an expected operational lifetime of around 20 years. The experimental collaborations running the LHC's detectors, ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, and TOTEM are poised to bring new and profound insights into the workings of our Universe.

Three main ingredients are necessary for this kind of research at the frontier of knowledge - the LHC itself will accelerate and collide particles of matter, the detectors will observe the collisions, and a vast global computing infrastructure, the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, is being put in place to analyze the resulting data. In 2007, good progress has been made on all fronts.

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