[Neutron] Fw: J-PARC Newsletter #26

[arai (J-PARC)]

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                 J-PARC Project Newsletter

               _______ No.26,October 2006_______

     Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under construction jointly
      by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and
      the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK)
      http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html

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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS

1. <<Overview>>
LINAC AREA IS NOW CLOSED.
BUDGET NEGOTIATION AND BUDGET REVIEWS.
RESULTS FROM THE J-PARC PAC FOR 50 GEV
THE THIRD REVIEW ON J-PARC IS PLANNED.
EXPANSION OF THE J-PARC CENTER.

2. <<Accelerator Group and Control Group>>
THE RADIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY ISSUED THE PERMISSION FOR
THE J-PARC CENTER TO START THE BEAM COMMISSIONING.
THE RCS RF SYSTEM WAS SUCCESSFULLY POWER-TESTED FOR 1,000 HOURS.

3.<<Nuclear and Particle Physics Group>>
HADRON HALL CONSTRUCTION IS GOING ON

4. <<Neutron Science Group>>
THE MERCURY TARGET VESSEL WAS FABRICATED
SPECIFICATIONS OF DAY-ONE INSTRUMENTS HAVE BEEN FINALIZED
DETECTOR DEVELOPMENTS PROGRESSED

5. << Muon Science Group>>
INSTALLATION OF THE MUON TARGET CHAMBER

6. <<Nuclear Transmutation Group>>
INTERIM REPORT OF PRELIMINARY LETTERS OF INTENT FOR
TRANSMUTATION EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY (TEF) AND PROGRESS
OF R&D ON SPALLATION TARGET

7. <<Radiation Safety Group>>
THE APPROVAL OF RECYCLED IRON FOR SHIELDING CAME THROUGH

8.<<Information System Group>>

9. <<Announcement of Symposia and Meetings>>

10. <<Editorial Note>>

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1. <<Overview>> By Shoji NAGAMIYA
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LINAC AREA IS NOW CLOSED.

The Linac installation is over. The final inspection
for the radiation safety was conducted at the beginning of October.
Now, the area is closed so that it will not be allowed for general
users to enter into the Linac tunnel without obtaining radiation
safety permission.

We shall start beam tests from December this year.
The plan is to finish the test for Linac operation by the middle of
the next fiscal year so that the 3 GeV beam test can be started in
the fall of 2007. The 50 GeV beam test is scheduled in the spring
of 2008.

BUDGET NEGOTIATION AND BUDGET REVIEWS.

The project team sent the budget proposal to the funding
agency through JAEA and KEK. The same amount of the request went
to the Ministry of Finance from the funding agency called the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science. and Technology (MEXT).
The Advisory Boards of MEXT as well as the Council of Science and
Technology Policy (CSTP) have conducted serious reviews on the
proposal. The final decision will be made at the end of December.

The key issues for the next year are: 1) timely
completion of the project and 2) a smooth start of the beam test of
the 3 GeV Synchrotron. In addition, we request funding for equipment
for experimental devices. The funding agency, MEXT, is very
supportive to us.

RESULTS FROM THE J-PARC PAC FOR 50 GEV

At the end of April 20 experimental proposals for the upcoming
50 GeV beam were submitted to the J-PARC Center. The PAC
meeting selected three proposals for full approval. They are a
neutrino experiment (to use the fast extracted neutrino beamline)
and two experiments on hypernuclei (to use one of slow extracted
kaon beamlines). The scientific merits for several other experiments
at the slow-extracted beamlines were evaluated as high by the PAC,
while further studies on practical issues including technological
studies, funding search, etc. have been encouraged by the PAC.

THE THIRD REVIEW ON J-PARC IS PLANNED.

The MEXT informed us that the third review will be
conducted from the end of October through the end of March or April
in 2007. Note that the first review meeting of this type was held
before the approval of the project in 1999-2000. The second one
was held in 2003, at which the neutrino program was officially
approved for Phase 1. In this third review, the review items are
1) the operational budget, 2) Linac energy recovery, 3) Phase 2
projects, 4) organization for the operation, and 5) arrangements for
international usage, etc. The final membership of the review panel
is being selected at the Government level.

EXPANSION OF THE J-PARC CENTER.

The J-PARC Center started its operation since February
of 2006 with a small number of members of the order of 60. An
expansion of this Center is currently discussed at several places
at JAEA and KEK. The anticipated size in the next fiscal year
would be about 200 permanent staff members, with an eventual goal
of about 300 permanent staff members plus 300 temporary members.


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2.<<Accelerator Group and Control Group>>
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　by Yoshishige Yamazaki and Tadahiko Katoh
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THE RADIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY ISSUED THE PERMISSION FOR
THE J-PARC CENTER TO START THE BEAM COMMISSIONING.
THE RCS RF SYSTEM WAS SUCCESSFULLY POWER-TESTED FOR
1,000 HOURS.

All the linac components were installed, and precisely
aligned if necessary. The Personnel Protection System (PPS), which
is a beam interlock system required for the linac radiation safety
system, has been completed and tested by the radiation safety group
of J-PARC prior to the official inspection. The authority issued
the permission for the J-PARC center to start the beam commissioning
on October 10th after its inspection, while the access-controlled
area was set on October 11th. The start of the linac beam
commissioning is planned in December.
Construction of the control system for the linac
beam commissioning is the current focus. The timing system for
the linac is available now. Record structure for the linac control
database has been almost fixed. Connection of the control system
with each component and its remote control test are being carried
out now, as well as the connection and test of the Machine
Protection System (MPS), which is another beam interlock system.
On September 29th a 1,000-hour power test of the RF
system for the Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) was also finished.
Eighteen cores in total were tested with three accelerating
gaps. The six cores installed nearest the accelerating gaps were
those manufactured with special control to prevent the cores from
damaging the 2-micron silica insulator layers. After the 300-hour
power test we had found tiny brown-colored spots with a diameter
less than 1mm on five cores. Although these are not core damage
(the coatings looks colored), it had been still a big worry that
these brown spots would grow during the course of long-term
power loading, resulting in serious damage to the cores. A
careful inspection of the cores after the 1,000-hour operation
showed no growth of any brown-colored spots, although we found
one new brown spot. On the basis of these power tests we can
expect that the RF system can be barely prepared in time for
the RCS beam commissioning planned next September.


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3.<<Nuclear and Particle Physics Group>> by Jun IMAZATO
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HADRON HALL CONSTRUCTION IS GOING ON

The civil construction of the slow extracted beam tunnel
and the construction for the Hadron Experimental Facility started
in 2003, the third year of the J-PARC project. Now in the fourth
year of cash flow, the facility construction is nearing completion.
The extraction tunnel has been completed with its total length,
it is now ready for installation of magnets down to the hall.
The building construction of the hall with a size of 60m width
and 56m length is now reaching its peak. The structure of pillars
and roof has long been erected, the walls for semi-underground
and lower part of the building have already been concreted, and
wall panels are now being attached. A crane bridge with a 60m
span will be soon erected. In the hall also shielding walls
sandwiching the primary beamline with 7m thickness are being
deposited with concrete and appearing their shape. The building
is scheduled to be completed next spring together with small
buildings for services and magnet power supplies. The installation
of beamlines will start in June aiming for the first proton beam
acceptance in December 2008.


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4. <<Neutron Science Group>> by Yujiro IKEDA
　　(Materials & Life Science Experimental Facility Group)
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THE MERCURY TARGET VESSEL WAS FABRICATED

MLF building construction has progressed on schedule.
The exterior of the building is almost finished. Interior
construction such as electricity cabling, air-conditioning,
and so on is scheduled for completion at the end of
this year. Many of components of the target station are in the
final stage of manufacturing. The target vessel and the target
trolley fabrications were finished and a test interfacing them to
each other was successfully performed in the factory. A power
manipulator system, a moderator system, and a cryogenic
hydrogen system have almost been completed. Some of them
were shipped and installed in the site. A neutron shutter system,
transfer lines of the cryogenic hydrogen system, and a neutron
pre-shield system have progressed in their installations
as scheduled. All the construction work of the neutron
source is now about 50% completed and the
installation at the site will be completed by the end of
this fiscal year.

SPECIFICATIONS OF DAY-ONE INSTRUMENTS HAVE BEEN FINALIZED

As announced, we have obtained a construction budget
of about 27-Oku-Yen for two instruments of JAEA, a Low Energy
Disc-Chopper Instrument and a Residual Stress Analysis
Diffractometer. We are now in preparation for specification
documents for bidding including the scattering vacuum tank, neutron
transport guides, shielding, and detectors etc. Since the budget for
other instruments came from various sources, we need some
efforts to organize the construction scheme to coordinate among
them. We are now working with seven instruments to be constructed
as the Day-One instrument suite. In addition to the two of JAEA,
these are the Bio-crystal diffractometer and the High intensity
powder diffractometer, which are owned by Ibaraki Prefecture, a
high intensity chopper instrument, an instrument to study neutron
cross-sections of minor-actinide, and a spin-echo instrument,
which are awarded by grants, respectively. The spin echo
instrument will be tested in JRR3 reactor before installing
in J-PARC.

DETECTOR DEVELOPMENTS PROGRESSED

We are developing the two-dimensional position
sensitive neutron gas detector system with individual readouts
in order to fulfil detector specifications for neutron small
angle scattering and reflectometry and so on. A micro-pixel
(MP) gas chamber, which has the characteristics that exhibit
reproducibility of the fabrication and mechanical stability of
the readout strips, has been developed. We constructed the
detector system that has a gas vessel with 541 channel feed-
through directly connecting to the data processing circuits.
Two dimensional readout with anode and cathode strips is formed
with a pitch of 400 microns. The developed detector system exhibited
a temporal response of 200 ns, stable operation and a spatial
resolution of about 2.3 mm.


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5. << Muon Science Group>> by Yasuhiro Miyake
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INSTALLATION OF THE MUON TARGET CHAMBER

For the Phase 1, one graphite target is planned to be installed,
from which secondary lines (one decay muon channel,
one high momentum line and two surface muon channels) extend into
two experimental halls. Each experimental hall will receive two of
the above secondary lines. In order to satisfy the requirements of
the spatial constraints of the six ports (inlet and outlet of the
primary 3 GeV line and 4 sets of the secondary lines), we fabricated
a specialized target and scraper chamber. In our design concept,
taking into account the ease of remote handling during maintenance
work, two sets of scrapers and a muon production target are to be
contained in one large vacuum chamber. All the water and cable
connections will be located at the top of the target chamber
accessible from the maintenance area. Consideration is being given
to the means of mounting the target, how to move and insert the
target with the required precision, cooling, monitoring, and
changing the target in the hot-cell. Its design was completed by
September 2005, with submission to international bidding and
placement of order completed by December 2004 and May 2005,
respectively. We finally completed installation of the chamber on
the M2 line (between the muon target and the neutron target) just
before a temporal MLF gate was closed in the end of June, 2006.


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6. <<Nuclear Transmutation Group>> by Hiroyuki OIGAWA
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INTERIM REPORT OF PRELIMINARY LETTERS OF INTENT
FOR TRANSMUTATION EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY (TEF) AND
PROGRESS OF R&D ON SPALLATION TARGET

An interim report of Preliminary Letters Of
Intent (Pre-LOI) for the Transmutation Experimental
Facility (TEF) was presented at the Fall Meeting of
the Atomic Energy Society of Japan. Up to now, 34
themes are being proposed. The gross number of
applicants exceeds one hundred. Proposed experiments
can be categorized into (1) accelerator-driven systems (ADS),
(2) innovative nuclear systems and (3) basic science.
Additional submission of Pre-LOI is still acceptable,
but must arrive by November 30, 2006. Please refer to
the web site:
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html,
and click "call for the preliminary Letters of Intent"
in the column of "News & Topics".

As for the development of the lead-bismuth
spallation target, there was great progress in the
international collaborative program "MEGAPIE"
(MEGAwatt PIlot Experiment) conducted at Paul Scherrer
Institute (PSI), Switzerland. The irradiation of 700 kW
(1200 micro-A, 600 MeV) proton beam started successfully
for user operation on August 21, 2006. This is the first
megawatt class liquid metal target in the world.
JAEA is one of MEGAPIE partners.
Please refer to the web site:
http://megapie.web.psi.ch/ .
As a basic technology to deal with lead-bismuth,
the research and development on flow velocity profile is
under way in JAEA. The lead-bismuth velocity distribution
in the target model loop (JLBL-2) was successfully measured
by controlling wetting of lead-bismuth with structural materials.


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7.<<Radiation Safety Group>> by Taichi MIURA and Hiroshi NAKASHIMA
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THE APPROVAL OF RECYCLED IRON FOR SHIELDING CAME THROUGH

In the last a few years, a possibility of the use
of recycled-iron for shielding at the Nuclear and Particle
Physics Facility has been discussed from the point of view
of cost and radiation regulations. The plan was brought to
the Ibaraki Prefecture Government and the Tokai-mura Municipal
Government in July, 2006. After several meetings with these
Governments, the plan was finally approved on September 4th,
2006; also, the plan and the approval were reported to Nuclear
and Industrial Safety Agency, and the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). After the
approval, the purchase order to import the recycled iron was
sent to Duratek Inc., USA.
It is compulsory for the LINAC to be inspected by
the Nuclear Safety Technology Center(NUSTEC) before using the
LINAC as a radiation facility; the inspection before the
operation was conducted on October 4th and 5th. After receiving
the permission, the radiation controlled area will be enforced
around October 11th. The 2nd Expert Committee on the safety of
the J-PARC neutrino production target was held on October 3rd.
In the committee, the following two items were mainly reviewed:
(1) the super-conducting magnet system and (2) radioactivity
induced in cooling water and He gas used in the secondary beam
line and the exchange scheme.


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8.<<Information System Group>> by Toshio HIRAYAMA and Setsuya KAWABATA
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Since JAERI and KEK successfully invited Super-SINET node to
Tokai Campus, the J-PARC information system group proceeded
to connect JLAN (J-PARC infrastructure network) directly to the
Super-SINET on 2nd August. (Super-SINET is the ultrahigh-speed
network for Japanese academic research institutions.) By this new
connection, the network bandwidth between JLAN and the Internet has
been improved by a factor of 10, from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps.
At the same time the route from J-PARC to the Internet was
rearranged from the route via KEK to a direct connection. It also
means JLAN has a router switch and a network firewall independent
of KEK and JAEA network facilities.


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9. Announcement of Symposia and Meetings
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N-TAC (neutron technical advisory committee meeting) 20-22 November.

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10. <<Editorial Note>>
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ERROR CORRECTION

In the last issue we mistyped "exotic neutron science group" instead of
"exotic nuclear science group". Here, we correct our mistake.


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Editorial Board:
Masatoshi ARAI (chair): masatoshi.arai at j-parc.jp
Koji YOSHIMURA: koji.yoshimura at kek.jp
Yujiro IKEDA: yujiro.ikeda at jaea.go.jp
Nobuo OUCHI: nobuo.ouchi at jaea.go.jp
Shinya SAWADA: shinya.sawada at kek.jp
English Editor: Dick Mischke mischke at triumf.ca

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