Ongoing upgrades on the road to HiLumi
ISOLDE beam dumps successfully dismantled
ISOLDE has reached a major milestone in its ISOLDE Improvement Programme with the dismantling of its two beam dumps. Designed in the early 1990s, this equipment had seen the facility through more than three decades of operation.
As the energy and intensity of the beam delivered by the Proton Synchrotron Booster gradually increased, the dumps were pushed to their thermal and mechanical limits, making their replacement essential. Installed downstream of the target stations, the dumps consisted of massive steel blocks shielded by concrete blocks and 10 metres of earth. Extracting them was no mean feat: not only were they highly radioactive, but they were also buried under 8000 m3 of earth.
Over the course of three years of studies carried out in collaboration with several groups, the radiological characterisation of the soil was completed (HSE-RP) and excavation and dismantling protocols were drawn up (SCE-PPM and SY-STI, respectively). The most radioactive components were then successfully removed using heavy-duty handling equipment (EN-THE) and robotic systems (BE-CEM). Work will now focus on the construction of an underground technical building that will provide access to the new water-cooled beam dumps, which are currently in production.