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01.03.2012
Accelerator tunnel for the European XFEL completed
Construction of the more than 2 kilometre long accelerator tunnel of the European XFEL facility has been completed. At the end of February, the construction company ARGE Tunnel XFEL officially handed over the tunnel to Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). Currently ARGE Tunnel XFEL is carrying out final work and removing construction equipment.
View of the accelerator tunnel for the European XFEL.
On 12 March, the Accelerator Consortium led by DESY will begin equipping the tunnel with infrastructure and security equipment, such as radio, light, cable trays, and smoke detectors. According to the project plan, the last module will be installed in May 2015, and the accelerator will then be tested for the first time.
Work on the accelerator tunnel started in January 2011, when the boring machine TULA (“tunnel for laser”) began to dig its way from the construction shaft on the Osdorfer Born site to the DESY-Bahrenfeld site. Right behind the cutting wheel digging its way through the earth, more than 8 000 precast concrete segments were inserted to construct the tunnel wall. In July 2011, TULA reached its destination and was dismantled and removed from the construction site. The tunnel was then equipped with a flat floor made of concrete elements, which will later cover parts of the infrastructure.
The accelerator tunnel starts at the future injector building in DESY-Bahrenfeld and ends at a shaft in Osdorfer Born. Further towards Schenefeld, the tunnel branches into two and then eventually five tunnels. The construction of these photon tunnels, which lead to the future experiment hall on the Schenefeld site, is expected to be completed by mid-2012. The photon tunnels will later serve to generate X-ray flashes from accelerated bunches of electrons. DESY is the main shareholder of the European XFEL company.
