In this project, dubbed CHESS-U, an 80 meter section of the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) will be replaced by 12 compact double-bend achromats (DBA’s) to lower electron beam emittance by a factor of three. The critical element in the achromat is a 2.3 meter long combined function (CF) dipole magnet which has a curved geometry. In this cost-effective and transversely compact design, the magnet has a “C-shape” core of dimensions 260 x 412 mm and tapered pole shape.

Neatly sorted pallets of steel I-beams and C-channel litter the assembly area. A new 10’ long welding table holds a massive section of wall structure. Assembled across the room, standing tall, are the first three sections. Fully welded and bolted together, they tower over CHESS Staff inspecting what will become the first new hutches built at CHESS in over 15 years. We are on schedule for installation late this summer and commissioning of hutch 1A3 as an extension of the F2 hutch in January of 2018.

Short summaries for various systems follow below.

The fabrication of magnets, vacuum systems, power conversion components, instrumentation, and other systems has been ramping up over the last 6 months. The first few components of each type were fabricated in house, but most are contracted to upstate NY businesses. The following is an illustrated series of snapshots of activities.

This is a time when we focus on maintenance of the synchrotron and CESR, upgrading systems and equipment, and preparing for CHESS-U. Brief summaries of just a few of the Summer Down projects are below:

This summer, we are upgrading the safety system at G-line. The upgrade will include PLC (touch screen) displays at all of the G-line hutches and magnetic door locks on the hutches in place of keys. Over 800 wiring connections have been made so far as part of this upgrade, and several hundred feet of old cables have been removed from wire trays.

As a reminder, the changes to the storage ring will:

These new hutches are prototypes and a head start for the CHESS-U upgrade planned for summer 2018. The complete structure was pre-fabricated at ADC Inc.

During those workshops, astute scientists like Phil Anfinrud (NIH) prompted CHESS management to explore how our upgraded source might serve scientists needing large x-ray pulses. His questions followed an external review of the accelerator upgrade which also pointed out that the CHESS source – CESR – was flexible enough to support particle beam bunch patterns having high bunch charge (up to 50 nanoCoulombs per bunch) and flexible timing (from 14 to 644 nanoseconds).

CHESS is currently in the midst of designing and planning for CHESS-U, and since NSLS-II was recently built and commissioned (and the work is still ongoing), the folks at NSLS-II had fantastic advice and expertise to offer us.

The work breakdown structure (WBS) has been created and System Managers have been assigned. Two large contracts have been awarded and designs are being vetted. We are almost ready to cut metal.