Thread by @suziesheehy

Bit of an early start today (5:30am yawn) but it’s a big day!! Our exciting high frequency #particleaccelerator equipment from @CERN finally arrives on @unimelb campus! #xbox #xlab need coffee!!

My international friends also might not realise even tho we are relatively covid free we still wear masks indoors in Melbourne to stop the spread of the few covid cases there are... in case you’re interested 🤷‍♀️

Our lab is actually in the basement underground as it is a radiation shielded bunker that used to house a 35 MeV betatron for photonuclear research. It’s under here:

First the team will clear a path for the largest parts of the equipment, the modulators (that form the signals that then get amplified up to high power and sent to the accelerating sections)

There’s so much stuff it had to go on TWO trucks because one bigger one couldn’t fit on the @unimelb campus - we’re prepping the area awaiting the trucks from the port. It’s been a long journey from @CERN !

The trucks have arrived! Our expert Matteo Volpi has been waiting for this moment for months since he packed up all the equipment @CERN with his friends and colleagues there

We are a little bit excited. But now we watch while the pro rigging team do their thing.

The truck comes with its own crane! But I’m not driving this one (yes I have a crane drivers license 🤣 the accelerator field can be weird like that)

The first box is rigged and lifted, this is the view from down under the floor of our loading bay, in the basement @uommedia @unimelb

Many pieces of equipment are too large for the lab doors or indeed any doors so we’ll have to unbox them to fit them in (this was all planned over recent weeks...)

My colleague Matteo Volpi directing the delicate process of lifting a modulator...

Now if ever there was an application of engineering statics, force etc it’s lifting a delicate 1.3 T modulator 😬 😬

FYI the X-Band High Frequency Test Stands are affectionately known by @CERN as the “X-box” in case you see it called that. Our new lab to develop compact particle accelerators will be called the “X-Lab” 😎

I know there’s some other bad news in the world RN but here’s a little bit of good news: our first modulator has safely touched down in the basement 😅

And now the klystrons... 😅 in a #particleaccelerator klystrons deliver the high power radio frequency waves that accelerate the particles. These ones are special because they are super high frequency (12GHz) and high power 6MW.

These guys are chill. My heart is in my mouth. 🤣 modulator 2 almost down... #xlab #particleaccelerator @unimelb @CERN

Remember pythagoras’ theorem? I actually had to use it in a hurry today to calculate if we could tilt our HUGE electronics racks in the corridor to fit them through the door 🤣 much to the amusement of the crew.

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