Present: J. Billowes, K. Blaum, Y. Blumenfeld, P. Butler (Chairman), R. Catherall, A. Di Pietro, S. Franchoo, M. Garcia-Borge, A. Herlert, M. Huyse, A. Jokinen, M. Lindroos, T. Nilsson, K. Riisager, V. Zamfir
 
Excused: S. Siem

The meeting starts at 09.00 h

1. Introductory remarks by the chairperson

The chairman opens the meeting and welcomes Y. Blumenfeld who will take over as the ISOLDE group leader at the beginning of September 2008.

2. Approval of the minutes of the 51st meeting.

The minutes of the 51st ISCC meeting are approved.

3. Technical developments and AB Department news (M. Lindroos) (see overheads)

M. Lindroos summarises the work done during the shutdown period and the preparations

made for this years start-up. He mentions the following points:

• The SC have to have an RP technician present at ISOLDE when any work is undertaken in an area with radiation risks, to control safety issues. Since only one RP technician was available the planning of shutdown work was severely limited.
  R. Catherall has asked for a 2nd RP technician to be available for next years shutdown.
• Start-up checks have been made in collaboration with the other facilities at CERN.
• In order to reduce the activated air emissions encountered during 2007, the ventilation system has been reversed and measures have been taken to improve the air-tightness of the area. Tests will be carried out over the next few weeks.
• The new improved target cooling water distribution panel is now in use.
• Due to a broken filter inside one of the air dryer tanks, aluminium oxide has been blocking the pneumatic systems. Users are warned that the powder released could cause problems in the future.

M. Lindroos goes on to summarise the status of Front-End 6 and REX-ISOLDE. He informs

the committee that the whole REX machine is now up and running.

Regarding the upgrade of the RILIS lasers, the committee is told that both lasers have

been delivered from Germany and that one of these lasers will be used as a spare. The

project has been more work than expected but has gone very well; a Ga ion beam has

already been produced using the solid state lasers. The committee thanks the team involved

in the project especially B. Marsh and V. Fedosseev. M. Lindroos goes on to tell the

committee that both lasers set-ups will be used in parallel this year so ISOLDE users should

see no effects of the change-over. He also explains that, since the solid state lasers cost

less than expected, there are enough funds left over to pay for the required cylindrical

optics and initial contacts have been made with a company which could be involved with the

future replacement of the dye-lasers.

4. Scheduling and PH Department news (A. Herlert / K. Riisager) (see overheads)

A. Herlert presents the CERN accelerator schedule for 2008. Physics started at ISOLDE on May 9^th and protons will stop being delivered on November 12^th giving 27 weeks of physics. During this time there will be several long periods of machine development when ISOLDE will not receive protons.

A. Herlert explains that in total there are 701 RIB shifts for 2008; however some experiments will not use their remaining shifts so a clean-up will be made in the near future.

He goes on to tell the committee that 551 RIB shifts have been requested for this year but the schedule will have to take into account the limits in key resources such as the maximum of 2000h of RILIS operation and the maximum of 10 new UC_x target units that are available.  A discussion follows about how best to control the situation of waiting shifts and the optimum number of approved shifts required to be able to plan the schedule efficiently. It is noted that experiments often have to be approved before they can apply for funding so waiting a year or two for shifts is not a problem.

The committee is informed that:

• MINIBALL will be ready for physics on June 1^st.
• ISCOOL will be permanently installed in 2008. If required, in the future it could be run using hydrogen but this would create safety issues which would require investment in detectors.
• The new tape station from IHPC Strasbourg will be installed at the LA2 beam line in June 2008.

A. Herlert then presents the first half of this year’s ISOLDE schedule which involves 23 IS

experiments and the use of 17 targets.

The issue of relocation of floor space in the ISOLDE hall is then discussed with the

following points being covered:

• MISTRAL: the INTC has requested a status report as the future of MISTRAL is unclear due to retirement of people involved.
• ASPIC: A decision on its future is required this year so a workshop is planned to see if a new project leader can be found.
• ECR charge breeder: A collaboration meeting will be held on May 27^th to discuss the future plans for the ECR including  ongoing projects, new proposals and its possible relocation.
• CRIS: The Complis set-up will be removed in June 2008 to make room for CRIS but additional space is still required for the CRIS lasers.
• βNMR: This new set-up from HMI Berlin will be installed behind REX-LINAC this summer.

The committee is also informed that the new solid state lab in building 115 will be ready for

operation in 2008; all equipment has been moved from building 275 to the new location.

He then goes on to tell the committee that the new ISOLDE website should be available in a

few weeks and M. Garcia-Borge requests that the site should include a page containing

information about completed experiments.

K. Riisager then presents the news from the PH department including the following points:

• The latest ISOLDE newsletter was sent out in the middle of April.
• CERN User pre-registration and re-registration can now be done on line.
• At present, ISOLDE has one CERN fellow and a Marie Curie fellow for whom an application for a 6 month prolongation has been made. ISOLDE will try to get a second fellow at the next fellows and associates meeting which will be held on May 20^th.
• The next CERN Medium Term Planning will be more project oriented. It is expected that ISOLDE or ISOLDE together with n_TOF will be one of these projects.
• EURONS brochures are now available.

5. Budget 2008 (K. Riisager)

K. Riisager informs the committee that the budget he presented at the ISCC meeting in February 2008 is still on track and that the collaboration account has a very healthy balance. This is partly due to funds from the EURONS overhead account being used this year and that expenditure from the collaboration account for HIE-ISOLDE has not yet started.

The committee is also told that contributions to ISOLDE for the period 2008/2009 have already been received from CERN, Germany, Italy and Denmark.

6. MoU issues (K. Riisager)

The committee is told about the new CERN general conditions for experiments which override the ISOLDE MoU.  This new  streamlined document puts more emphasis on safety and intellectual property.  A discussion follows about how best the ISOLDE community can adhere to the CERN Open Access policy. Some journals offer open access options but this can be expensive so the committee recommends that ISOLDE users first post their paper on arXiv.org and then submit it to their chosen journal.

K. Riisager tells the committee that Portugal is still trying to get funding to be able to join the ISOLDE collaboration and M. Huyse announces that Bulgaria is also interested in becoming a member.

7. HIE-ISOLDE (M. Lindroos) (see overheads)

M. Lindroos presents the external funding situation of the HIE-ISOLDE project. As requested by the CERN management, over 50% of the funding required for phase one of the project has now been raised from external sources. M. Huyse tells the committee that at the last SPC meeting it was recommended that funding should be given to non-LHC projects and that HIE-ISOLDE was used as an example as ISOLDE is seen as being very successful at generating external funds. The committee agrees that the collaboration should push for CERN to accept HIE-ISOLDE as an official project.

M. Lindroos informs the committee that, since the AB department does not have a travel budget for its ISOLDE staff, any travel costs incurred for HIE-ISOLDE by AB personnel are being paid by the collaboration.

The committee agrees that the initial costs of a new PhD student from the UK, who will be working on the HIE-ISOLDE project, can be covered by the collaboration until the administrative problem that has arisen when arranging the shared payment of the cost of the post  with Leuven can be resolved.

8. INTC matters (M. Huyse)

M. Huyse requests a real cost estimate of the running of the ISOLDE facility from both the collaboration and the AB department. This will be required for the next mid-term plan negotiations.

9. A.O.B.

• P. Butler informs the committee that his term as ISCC Chairman will come to an end at the next ISCC meeting and asks the committee to submit nominations for his successor.
• The committee thanks K. Riisager, who will leave CERN at the end of August 2008, for his highly appreciated leadership of the ISOLDE Physics group during the past three years.
• K. Riisager reminds the committee that when he leaves CERN a new collaboration spokesperson will have to be appointed; preferably someone at CERN. Also he will need to be replaced as the ISOLDE representative on the Euroschool committee.
• BMBF fellows: A. Herlert informs the committee that projects have been defined but, even though the fellowships are advertised via the ISOLDE website there are not yet any candidates and supervisors from German universities are still required.
• M. Garcia-Borge requests that more chairs are placed in the ISOLDE kitchen.
• The next ISCC meeting will be held at CERN on Monday 3^rd November 2008 at 09:00.

The meeting ends at 12:15h