Directorate News
Dear Colleagues,
Spring is in the air — and as of Tuesday, so is beam in the LHC. After months of dedicated effort across the complex, the 2025 run is now well underway.
Following an intense Year-End Technical Stop, recommissioning of the complex has gone impressively well: Linac4 is delivering record current with excellent beam quality; the PSB has operated at over 98% availability following critical magnet interventions during the YETS. First beams were delivered on schedule to the East Area, n_TOF, and ISOLDE. The SPS ramped to top energy within an hour of injection, and the LHC is now into its first week of beam recommissioning — despite a few days’ delay due to a water leak in the ATLAS detector.
The HL-LHC project continues to make good progress. The latest CERN Nb₃Sn inner triplet quadrupole (MQXFB06) has performed impeccably in SM18 and marks the halfway point in the CERN production for tunnel installation during LS3. In the Inner Triplet String Test facility, the American cryoassembly Q3 was installed on 28 March, with the final cryoassembly, Q1, due next week; magnet interconnection work is already underway. The prototype RFD dipole crab cavity cryomodule has been successfully installed in the SPS, and the first fully assembled HL-LHC inner triplet beam screens are now complete — a significant step forward in installation readiness. [More news here.]
March Council week was relatively calm. The Annual Progress Report for 2024 was presented, and CERN was congratulated for the lab’s excellent performance. Of particular note was the approval of the use of radionuclides from the MEDICIS facility at ISOLDE for clinical treatment, with the path now open for a pilot study on samarium-153 radioligand therapy in cancer treatment.
The intense preparations for LS3 continue, with LHC schedule optimization a subject of particular interest to the Council. Courtesy of the LS3 committee safety team, a dedicated meeting on LS3 safety will take place on 14 May. The next major review — “Countdown to LS3” — is planned for 3 September 2025.
The FCC Feasibility Study was delivered on schedule at the end of March. The three volumes, totalling over 1000 pages, represent a tremendous effort by CERN and its collaborators. The study offers a solid basis for strategic reflection as the European Strategy update unfolds. A high-level review process is now being prepared, while on the ground, we move into the 2–3 year FCC pre-TDR phase (pending full Council approval).
Congratulations to our colleagues in the LHC experiments on their Breakthrough Prize. It’s always a pleasure to see world-class physics recognised — and while the prizes rarely mention cryogenics, vacuum, or power converters, the experiments are our friends, and their success reflects an outstanding collaborative effort. They do, on occasion, even turn up in the control room with champagne.
Finally, the DG-elect has confirmed CERN’s new organisational structure. For ATS, it’s business as usual — which, given our track record, is no bad thing, especially as we prepare for the challenges of LS3.
Mike
10 April 2025
Other news
The redesigned ATS website is available at https://ats.web.cern.ch/