Tevatron: Day of Doom

[beamjockey]

The final store is now circulating in the Tevatron. At breakfast, it was just below 100E30 luminosity units (per square centimeter per second).

The Tevatron's final crew is on shift. It will be a long day for them; after the 2 PM ceremony, after the officials and camera crews and Tevatron designers have left the Main Control Room for the party, the crew will be putting the Tevatron into standby, as well as continuing to operate other accelerators.

Picnic tents are up in the Horseshoe. TV cameras are in place in Ramsey Auditorium and the MCR. Lighting has been adjusted and links have been tested. An absurdly large TV has been placed in the MCR, so that the people there may see people speaking on the Auditorium stage.

Fermilab endures. Here are plans for the future.

Tevatron fact sheet.

About the shutdown process.

The original 1979 plan: A Report on the Design of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Superconducting Accelerator. Dr. Helen Edwards, one of its co-authors, will be performing the shutdown.

Comments

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

How much induced radioactivity is there in the tunnel? Will the magnets/etc. have to be treated as low level radioactive waste?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

So, are you still shooting neutrinos at the basement of the Soudan Mine or no?

K.

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

Interesting that ~1,000 students received their PhDs for work done on the Tevatron. That's a lot of (ahem) inbreeding, isn't it? Or maybe the study options for particle physicists are somewhat limited...

The most important thing about all of this to me is simple: will you, and our other friends, continue to be employed at FermiLab? xoxo

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's a sad day for you Bill. You've been part of something really amazing. I'm sure you have more amazing things ahead of you, but it's still sad to see something like this end.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

It's a sad day for high energy physics.

[mihai-lado.livejournal.com]

Well, one of the many books you need to write is about a career full of interesting stories at Fermilab.
(Personally, I would call it "Never Stop Accelerating."

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

What's that I hear softly in the distance? Daisy... Daisy... give me your answer... do...