Minutes of the Orion Technical Meeting: Sept. 27, 2000

===============================================================

Location: Room 144D (Beige Room),

Admin. and Engin. Bldg., SLAC

Present: Robert Noble, Dennis Palmer, Robert Siemann, Dieter Walz

Minutes recorded by: Robert Noble

1. Meeting time:

Future meetings will be on Mondays, 10 AM in the Beige Room

(Room 144D) in the A&E Building (Bldg. 41) at SLAC.

2. Discussion of the next steps in the Orion project:

- The assumption is that we will receive by October 30 an NSF

invitation to submit a full proposal due January 26, 2001.

Award announcement will occur by August 1, 2001 (10 months

from now) at which time we start construction of Orion at

the NLCTA.

- Before construction start, the Orion project will require

a baseline design, a final Work Breakdown Structure, Schedule

and Cost Estimate. This enables all participants to understand

their tasks and resource needs.

- A short Technical Design Study (TDS) with contributions from

the various participants in the collaboration is a proper

vehicle to address the above issues. R. Noble will act as

editor and begin contacting collaboration members to act as

writers. A draft "Table of Contents" has been placed on the

Orion website (http://www-project.slac.stanford.edu/orion)

within the Collaboration's special page (access by Collaboration

members only via password available from R. Siemann,

siemann@slac.stanford.edu). There may be more subsections at

Level 3 than this draft table shows depending on text supplied

by the writers. A TDS document of about 50-75 pages is thought

to be adequate, so contributions from individual writers should

be brief and to the point. The target date for the first TDS

draft is November 17, 2000. Much of the material generated for

the TDS can be used in the NSF proposal.

3. Roundtable discussion of Orion design assumptions for the TDS:

- The Orion RF Gun is assumed to be a 1.6 cell, S-band (2.856

GHz), emittance compensated photoinjector, based on the well

known BNL/SLAC/UCLA design, and driven by a frequency-tripled

Ti:Sapphire laser in a Class 10K clean room. Whether the new

injector is physically interchangeable with the present X-band

NLCTA gun or intalled as one leg of a Y magnetic switch

(dipole) depends on a beam dynamics study as well as reaching

agreement with the NLCTA management.

- The Low Energy Extraction Line at 50 MeV will leave the NLCTA

enclosure at a 20 degree angle, necessitating the boring of a

beampipe hole through four of the interlocking shield blocks.

A beam physics design will be performed to confirm that a

beamline with quadrupoles on either side of the wall can

transport the beam properly.

- The Laser Room 1 layout shows it to be 20 feet by 40 feet,

which is large for the compact, commercial laser. It was

suggested that we keep the room oversized to provide added

lab space for other Orion work and upgrades. Laser Room 2 for

experimenters will be expanded in the design to allow for up

to two laser systems with separate enclosures. The interlock

system will be designed with sufficient flexibility to allow

personnel access to lasers not in use for beam-on experiments.

The laser room at Bldg. 407 was cited as an example to use

for estimating floor space and utilities.

- An Experimental Staging Area for users will be needed in the

vicinity of the experimental halls. Experimental equipment

can be mounted to support girders and tested prior to

installation in the halls. A new SLAC lab building is being

planned for the area immediately northeast of End Station B,

and R. Siemann has requested Orion space there from

S. Williams, SLAC Experimental Facilities Dept.

- The present concept for experimental operations in the Low-

Energy Hall envisions space for three installed experiments

on the floor, but only one taking beam during a run period

lasting a few days. Beam would thus be time-shared between

the experiments with one taking data and the other two

analyzing data and preparing for their next run. This

arrangement simplifies the Control System to one appropriate

for single-mode operation and no fast beam sharing.

- In order to insure that there is no interference with the

Laser Room 1 or the 20 degree Transfer Line to the Low Energy

Hall, NLC management will be consulted on their need for

floor space inside End Station B for the so-called "8-pack"

RF System Test.

- A critical part of the Orion TDS will be an estimate for

water and power utilities. As the Laser Systems, RF System,

Transfer Lines and Experimental Halls are defined, a power

and water supply budget will be tabulated with the aid of

the SLAC engineering staff.

- D. Palmer, D. Walz and R. Noble will make a fact-finding

trip to the Accelerator Test Facility at Brookhaven National

Laboratory on October 26 - 27, 2000 in order to learn about

that facility's design, utility and space requirements,

operational procedures, and construction and operational

costs.

==================================================================