MICE PSAG PM report

1. MICE PSAGPM report • Completion of recent run and plans for shutdown • Schedule considerations • Spectrometer solenoid update • Substation • Admin, visitors, etc • Skills balance for the future Andy Nichols, STFC, PSAG, 19-8-10

2. Completion of recent run • Period of intense running finished 15th August • Complete success, looks like enough data gathered for Step I • All the equipment behaved itself very well indeed • Target swap in ISIS now under review, given good performance – meet with ISIS in September • Long shutdown will be spent on: • Planned maintenance and upgrades • PPS commissioning • Making a start on the LH2 installation • 2011 User run begins on March 1st, 2011

3. MICE Schedule as of Sept 2009 Run date: m Sep-Dec 2009 STEP I This is where we hoped to be NOW STEP II Q2/Q3 2010 Schedule under review, directly dependent on S/Sol. Aim to be ready with Step IV in Q2, 2012. Still rather controversial, much discussion to be had – begin at CM28 STEP V 2012 STEP VI 2013

4. Spectrometer solenoid update • Broken current leads have been located - near feedthro’ • Both magnets now completely in bits • FNAL critique has been circulated to S/Sol Review Committee, contains no surprises: • More rigorous thermal and mechanical engineering control • A complete separation from Wang NMR • Work is completed by another organisation(s) • Contains 22 incisive, but uncomfortable recommendations • These will form the basis of the recovery plan • Roy Preece has been accepted by the S/Sol team to help them – very good news • Recovery plan deadline is end December, 2010 • Refuse to second guess anything else till then!

5. Substation • Now know which way to go – many thanks for help with this • New equipment and cabling will be used in line with STFC policy • BPG have started detail planning, with significant input from DL electrical group • Provisional timetable: • End September 2010 – detail project plan • November 2010 – detail design, specification and tender documentation complete • Nov-Dec onwards – procurement/OJEC tender action • Detailed milestones will emerge post September • Will fit nicely with likely delivery date of Step IV

6. Admin, visitors, etc • Non tourists in UK have to comply with points-based immigration framework – will effect MICE visitors • Have spent most of Summer worrying about this • Two innocent students escorted off site – very bad, a lot of our goodwill vanished • It’s a bigger problem than just MICE, could we consider planting a sort of Visitor Liaison Officer in HR for the whole site? This would: • Enable HR to demonstrate their ownership of this problem • Relieve the load on project staff, ie, Rose & me • Set out a common approach for STFC • Help rebuild our reputation with visitors • In any case, MICE visitor registration process needs to be significantly improved/ streamlined • Hugely important that we get this right – MICE largely depends on its visitors

7. Skills Balance for the future • Nothing to worry about today, but in the medium-long term, there will be shortfall of skills to design and build the latter stages of MICE, especially: • RF engineering • Cryogenic engineering and support • Mechanical design • Fully understand (well almost) the constraints on STFC, but I think we should begin planning now. Problems I think are: • Little evidence of succession planning • Requests for contract staff are blocked • Because of the ‘list of unfunded staff’ • But Project leaders appear to be excluded from the discussion on linking these staff with funded posts • Again, this is probably a wider problem than just MICE • Not sure of the forum where this is discussed