PIP-II

To build the DUNE neutrino experiment and its associated accelerator upgrade, experts invent customized ways to transport fragile, expensive and highly specialized components.

The 10-meter-long cryomodule, part of the PIP-II particle accelerator project at Fermilab, is now undergoing testing to validate all its components and finalize its design. In a few years, Fermilab and international partners will produce four similar cryomodules that will propel particles in the new linear accelerator.

Construction may now begin on the PIP-II Linac Complex. The tunnel and building will house the new linear particle accelerator that will power the physics programs and neutrino research at Fermilab for the coming decades.

To prepare for the shipment of large, delicate particle accelerator components from the UK to Fermilab, the PIP-II team flew a “dummy load” across the Atlantic Ocean, recording every little bump the dummy experienced. After careful validation of all transportation data, the team will ship a 10-meter-long prototype cryomodule early next year.

From the CERN Courier, November 7, 2022: Fermilab’s Joel Butler and a group of scientists describe the recent ‘Snowmass’ community planning exercise in Seattle, Washington which reveal the great opportunities present in high-energy physics in the coming decades.

A postdoc on the PIP-II project, Wijethunga is working on investigating the presence of an electron cloud in the Fermilab Booster.

Successful assembly was the result of a collaboration among three institutions in three countries.

Senior engineering students designed a portable cleanroom and a modular cryomodule mockup for Fermilab’s new accelerator complex upgrade project.

A postdoc on the PIP-II project, Pathak works on beam dynamics and also enjoys riding his bike around Fermilab and admiring the blue sky of the Illinois prairieland.

From the Daily Herald, April 22, 2022: Fermilab’s PIP-II accelerator project has received full approval from the Department of Energy for construction, including a new superconducting radio-frequency linear particle accelerator that will help scientists in their quest to better understand our universe.