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EuCARD-2 achievements and prospects

Livia Lapadatescu — Wed, 11 Oct 2017 13:03:41 +0000

EuCARD-2 achievements and prospects
by Panos Charitos (CERN)

Some EuCARD-2 results in numbers, showing the impact on European science and society.
(Image credit: EuCARD-2 collaboration)

Accelerators are our only key to accessing the subatomic world, concentrating huge amounts of energy in tiny particle beams that penetrate deeply into the matter revealing new structures and physics phenomena. By converting energy into matter following Einstein’s famous formula (E=mc²) they can produce new types of matter that may have existed just after the Big Bang, when our Universe was too hot and dense. Moreover, some accelerators can inspect molecular and atomic structures, thus finding many applications outside fundamental research, from material science to medical diagnostics and treatment.

To exploit the potential that particle accelerators can offer in different fields, inside and outside of particle physics, crucial technological advancements are needed. Future accelerators should be more compact, more sustainable and more affordable; these developments could endure their use for particle physics and unlock their huge transformative potential in other fields. Improving the present and future European accelerator-based Research Infrastructures was the main goal of EuCARD-2, the FP7 Integrating Activity project just completed after 4 years full of events and successful accomplishments. Maurizio Vretenar, the EuCARD-2 Project Coordinator, explains: “In exploring societal applications we tried to capitalise on our competences in scientific accelerators, at the same time identifying areas where the impact of accelerators could be the highest”.

EuCARD-2 focused on improving the performance of existing and future accelerators with the goal of making them more compact, economic and energy efficient. On top of that, new applications of accelerators were analysed by EuCARD-2 in collaboration with industry. Accelerator produced isotopes can open new perspectives in medical imaging and in fighting cancer, giving an important contribution to the new generation of personalised cancer therapies. In the environmental field, the treatment with particle accelerators of flue gases from coal plants or of exhaust gases from e.g. large marine engines will reduce the rejection of sulphur and nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere, thus improving the quality of air. The diffusion of industrial processes based on accelerators, like material analysis, inspection, treatment of plastics and ion implantation will increase competitiveness for European industry, resulting in job creation and economic growth.

EuCARD-2 also studied ways to maximise the energy efficiency of accelerator facilities, contributed to the development of new schemes for frontier accelerators and in coordinating the plasma accelerator community in Europe, which resulted in the EuPRAXIA Design Study.

Key scientific achievements of EuCARD-2 include the selection of the conductor, the cable geometry and magnet design for High Temperature superconductors for accelerator magnets that can be used in future colliders, aiming to push further the energy and intensity frontiers: a world record current density of 1338 A/mm² was reached in an YBCO tape. EuCARD-2 produced and tested novel collimation materials that will be used for the High Luminosity upgrade of the LHC. Finally, it played a pivotal role in the demonstration of high-brightness electron beams for laser plasma accelerators and contributed to the initial success of the AWAKE plasma-driven experiment at CERN.

Participants of the final Annual Meeting on 28-30 March 2017, hosted by the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (Image credit: EuCARD-2 collaboration)

EuCARD-2 brought together 40 European universities, accelerator laboratories and technological institutes on a programme structured in 13 Work Packages. With clear objectives in mind, the EuCARD-2 team focused on obtaining results of direct benefit to both European science and European citizens. Vretenar explains: “We focused in structuring and supporting the existing accelerator community, contributing to the development of new ideas and technologies for the future accelerators for science, and to transferring these technologies to accelerators that could impact our everyday life.”

Reaching these goals called for the formation of a well-balanced international network of partners including research centres, universities and the industry. Modern scientific projects require collaboration and one of the key challenges of EuCARD-2 was to build across Europe a strong network of experts and young researchers who would share the same goal and remain motivated during this project. By promoting complementary expertise, cross-disciplinary fertilisation and a wider sharing of knowledge and technologies on strategic topics, EuCARD-2 succeeded in enhancing multidisciplinary R&D for European accelerators and prepared the ground for other EU funded accelerator projects.

Successful collaboration doesn’t come without problems and the coordination team of EuCARD-2 often had to tackle delicate technical problems. “Research is unforeseeable by definition and delays in the production of prototypes, unavailability of key people, unavailability of testing equipment forced us to change many times the schedule and to look for alternative solutions to keep our work plan and our engagements. Most of the times, the solutions consisted in a redistribution of the work among the partners that was possible only thanks to the good team spirit and to our culture of collaboration and exchange.”

As Vretenar points out, “There is a brave new world of applications in front of us, with many opportunities to exploit, but as well, many challenges to face in promoting scientific innovation in our complex European society”. EuCARD-2 has identified a number of promising technologies that could be exploited to improve European science and to address our societal challenges, such as providing better medicine for an aging population, reducing the environmental impact related to high living standards, and increasing technological content and competitiveness of industry. Some of these steps are part of the successor to EuCARD-2, the new ARIES (Accelerator Research and Innovation for European Science and Society) project that will continue the exploratory work of EuCARD-2, but at the same time will push forward selected key technologies in collaboration with industry.

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More information on the EuCARD-2 results can be found in the Final Project Report.

EuCARD-2

impact

results

Accelerator Applications

issue 22

CESSAMag delivering impact

Livia Lapadatescu — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 07:43:30 +0000

CESSAMag delivering impact
by Livia Lapadatescu (CERN)

The main objective of the FP7-CESSAMag (CERN-EC Support for SESAME Magnets) project was to support the construction of the SESAME light source in the Middle-East. With financial contribution from the EC, CERN’s main objective was to deliver the magnetic system and its powering scheme for the SESAME main accelerator ring, as well as to support the training of SESAME staff. Completed at the end of 2016, the project fulfilled or exceeded all its objectives.

Scientific and technical impact of CESSAMag

Section of the SESAME Main Accelerator Ring (Image credit: CERN)

Building upon SESAME studies, CESSAMag finalized the requirements and design and produced the engineering and technical drawings of the SESAME magnets and powering scheme. The first main result of CESSAMag is the production of design reports on the combined function bending magnets, on the quadrupole magnets (long and short), on the sextupole magnets with their auxiliary corrector windings and on the powering scheme. These design and engineering study reports were used as background for the technical specifications needed for tendering and can serve as reference for the construction of similar light sources.

During the tendering process, CERN made a special effort to place orders not only with experienced European companies, but also with companies based in some of the SESAME Members (Cyprus, Israel, Pakistan, Turkey), without former experience in accelerator components (except for Israel), but demonstrating potential and motivation. This was achieved through effective knowledge transfer from CERN and generated potential commercial impact in the companies trained.

All magnets successfully passed the acceptance tests at either ALBA-CELLS or CERN and their measured field quality and reproducibility from magnet to magnet are excellent, making them a reference for similar synchrotrons. Therefore, a key result of CESSAMag is the string of magnets forming the SESAME storage ring, composed of:

16 combined function bending magnets (dipole + quadrupole)
64 quadrupoles of two types: 32 long focusing and 32 short defocusing quadrupoles
64 sextupole/correctors

CESSAMag also contributed to the production of an improved magnet powering scheme: rather than procuring power supplies adapted to each kind of magnet, another approach was proposed by CERN, based on light source standards (PSI), which allows individual powering of quadrupoles and simplified maintenance by plug-and-play modules by standardizing interfaces. With this strategy, SESAME benefits from a powering strategy more powerful, flexible and robust than initially foreseen.

Following the decision to procure some components from companies based in the SESAME Members and thanks to the in-kind contribution of Pakistan, offering the assembly of 50% of the sextupoles, CESSAMag managed to deliver a more powerful and complete magnetic system and reduce the financial share that SESAME was due to contribute to the project.

Finally, CESSAMag contributed to the magnet integration and commissioning, with the goal of making SESAME fully in control of the equipment delivered by CERN.

The first beam was circulated in the SESAME main accelerator ring on 11 January 2017 and it was stored and accumulated up to 20mA in mid-February. The next step is ramping the beam and completing the RF stations and final acceleration assessment expected before the end of summer. The inauguration ceremony of the SESAME light source will take place in mid-May with the foreseen presence of high-ranking officials from SESAME Members and Observers. The first user experiments are foreseen to start in Q3.

Political and social impact of CESSAMag

A significant aspect showcasing the socio-economic impact of CESSAMag is the knowledge transfer to companies from SESAME Members and training of SESAME staff. The duration of training to staff, engineers and companies from SESAME Members amounts to about 90 person-months and the CERN personnel effort in training and knowledge transfer amounts to 16 person-months.

In the context of CESSAMag, international collaborations and agreements were established between CERN and SESAME and CERN and ALBA-CELLS; implementation agreements were formed with PAEK (Pakistan), TAEK (Turkey) and ILSF (Iran) and an informal collaboration with IAEA, which provided financial support for training and experts’ visits between CERN and SESAME. These collaborations and agreements illustrate the international and science diplomacy dimensions of the project.

Furthermore, the European Union acknowledged the science diplomacy impact of CESSAMag and made further steps in support of SESAME. Since 2015, the EU is an Observer in the SESAME Council and the EC decided to further support the training of SESAME users and staff in the framework of the OPEN SESAME (Opening Synchrotron Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) H2020 “Policy and international cooperation measures for research infrastructures” project.

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This article is based on the Project Final Report.

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