Slashdot Mirror
The Recycling of the Tevatron
ananyo writes with an excerpt from an article in Nature about the decomissioning of the Tevatron: "It is a 4,000-tonne edifice that stands three stories high, chock full of particle detectors, power supplies, electronics and photomultiplier tubes, all layered like a giant onion around a cylindrical magnet. During 26 years of operation at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, this behemoth, the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), helped to find the top quark and chased the Higgs boson. But since the lab's flagship particle collider, the Tevatron, was switched off in September 2011, the detector has been surplus stock — and it is now slowly being cannibalized for parts."
Currently other projects are taking small bits and pieces of the Tevatron, but another Fermilab project, ORKA, wants to gut the collider to study kaon decay.
Put it on eBay: "Create your own black hole!" Starting bid: $1 (no reserve)
I'm confused why this is news. Can I buy the parts or something? What does it matter if they're selling the parts.
Recycling is breaking something down into component materials and re-fabricating those materials into new things. Unplugging a tube and plugging it in somewhere else isn't recycling. Still, it conserves natural resources, so what the hey.
Sounds like a great set for filming some sci fi - like they used to make movies when tearing down amusement parks and blowing up the roller coaster.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
The lack of funding for the Tevatron is deeply unfortunate. It almost certainly could still have been used for good research. Between this and the earlier cancellation of the SSC, the US seems to be doing its hardest to make sure that it isn't first in particle physics research. We're still doing a lot of good research at Fermilab. For example, MINOS is working on testing the recent FTL neutrino claim (and in fact, the OPERA group was paying careful attention to arrival times primarily because MINOS had previously discovered an anomaly which tentatively suggested that some neutrinos might be traveling faster than light). And the US is still doing very good physics in other areas, especially in solid state physics and plasma physics. But this a really bad trend. It fits into the same pattern as the recent budget cuts to Mars exploration, while we still have billions of dollars pumping into military boondoggles.
I'm happy that they can at least reuse the Tevatron, and kaon decay which is important for understanding CP violation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_violation which may have implications for why there's apparently so much more matter than antimatter in the universe. But it really shouldn't be coming to this. Physicists shouldn't be desperately scrambling for parts while the cost of what they need is less than a new fighter squadron.
What is the decay of a particle that doesn't exist?
The US will be down to one active cyclotron-collider by the end of this year and not world class anymore. Some of the older accelerators have been recycled: Stanford Linear Accelerator where two of the quark mesons were discovered is now one of the worlds most powerful xray sources. This can see molecular size objects or time slices faster than a chemical reaction.
the US space program can no longer launch astronauts into orbit. Earliest will be next decade. Space probes have been cut to the two in development with nothing beyond that funded.
They always say, "Maybe I'll need it someday . . . ", or "I might be able to scavenge some parts . . ."
And the stuff just sits around forever . . . right next to my Token Ring network card, tangled up in cables with wacky connectors . . .
They just can't part with the Tevatron . . . this recycling line is just an excuse to keep it around.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
First of all this article is about recycling parts of an experiment at the Tevatron, not so much the Tevatron itself. But regardless....
This is not news. These experiments are just a collection of parts, many of which can be re-used. I guarantee you CDF re-used parts from other experiments at times too. You wouldn't do an optics experiment and then toss away all the lenses and mirrors and then go buy new. That would be a waste. A chemist doesn't buy a whole new set of beakers for each experiment he needs to run.
Sure this is bigger and on a longer time scale, but it's all just parts. Even if they remove the large central magnet, they will put in a mock-up and a visitor will never know the difference. It's not just driven by tight budgets. It was always this way. If you can save $$$ reusing something, you have more money to spend on the cutting edge stuff you also need.
I think the Tevatron is the second most powerful accelerator on the planet in terms of collision energies. Cern has way outclassed it in collision energies, but it's still a world class piece of equipment. The Stanford Linear accelerator (SLAC) made a great electron source, for a collaminated X ray source. I think it's by far the brightest in the world, enabling experiments that can be done no where else. What could be done with the Tevatron? It's a shame not to use it somehow.
I used to bike around the grounds of FNAL; I'd love to see them open up the tunnels and see a little of the other side!
Since it's in a rural area, I bet if the word got out, the meth heads would be all over it to steal the copper. It would end up looking like one of those old abandoned military sites in Russia.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
Recycling is breaking something down into component materials and re-fabricating those materials into new things. Unplugging a tube and plugging it in somewhere else isn't recycling. Still, it conserves natural resources, so what the hey.
Parts that are not being used, are being transferred to active research projects saving a lot of money. This is a very good thing. Why are we splitting hairs on this?
Well that depends using "a new fighter squadron" as a metric of measurement...
Lets see to convert, apparently there are 16 fighters in a US fighter squadron. "New", would have to refer to the new F35 fighter jets being built, the cheapest of which is estimated to cost about 122$ million dollars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II
So some rough calculations mean those poor scientists only need 1952 Million dollars, or in general terms about 2 Billion! :)
Do you have a cite for that study? It sounds interesting. I could only find a passing reference to the study here. I also learned that Googling Monkey Juice Economics is not particularly safe for work...
Sorry, it was a while back and I don't recall the particulars. But it appears that you're on the right track.
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
Tevatron would make a great Nascar oval.