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In this issue:
SLAC Creates Mini-Antarctica to Calibrate NASA Antenna
Safety Today: Fire Season at SLAC
Demolition Projects to Begin Wednesday

SLAC Today

Tuesday - June 20, 2006
(Photo - Loading ice for the ANITA detector)
Members of the ANITA collaboration move a 300-pound block of ice, one of about 70 used in this week's End Station A experiment. (Click on image for larger version.)

SLAC Creates Mini-Antarctica
to Calibrate NASA Antenna

by Heather Rock Woods

During the first week of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, SLAC will be home to a mini-Antarctica.

Scientists are using a ten-ton block of ice in End Station A to calibrate the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), a radio antenna array that will fly over the South Pole on a NASA balloon to search for ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos.

"These neutrinos are bound to exist, but no one has ever observed them," said Pisin Chen of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), principal investigator for the test of ANITA. "Neutrinos don't like to interact, so we need an effective way to see them. We need a huge target, like the South Pole ice."   Read more...

(Column - Safety Today)

Fire Season at SLAC

by Krista Zala

(Photo - Fire Station)

Firefighter Stewart Hill at SLAC's Palo Alto Fire Station 7. (Click on image for larger version.)

With the summer heat upon us, fire crews are training for the wildfire season. In the coming weeks, the three crews of Palo Alto Fire Station 7—located on the SLAC site—will fight simulated grassfires, practice fire engine maneuvers, and survey the area for changes in accessibility.

Grassfires are unpredictable. As a blaze sucks in oxygen and blares heat, it pulls air currents in new directions, effectively creating its own weather. Between the topography, humidity, and weather, the crews have a lot to handle.

In one firefighting simulation, Captain Doug Conn pulls the engine's fire hose for Firefighter Stew Hill, as he heads out with an additional 200 feet of hose strapped to his back. Conn follows with his own hosepack. Operator Catherine Capriles controls discharge of the tank's 500 gallons and watches the terrain so no one gets trapped by the flames.  Read more...

Demolition Projects
to Begin Wednesday

by Jesse Saldivar

(Photo - Research Yard)

Demolition will begin on Building 102 (blue) and Building 113 (yellow) this Wednesday. (Click on image for a larger version including the SLD Gas Pad marked in red.)

This Wednesday, construction workers will begin demolition on three buildings: the SLAC Large Detector (SLD) Gas Pad East of PEP Ring Road, Building 102 A/B in the Research Yard, and Building 113 High Bay in the Research Yard. This work will make way for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).

Demolition projects can be dangerous. The work on these three sites will include heavy machinery, power tools, concrete demolition and the associated flying concrete chips, metals and other objects. Access will be restricted to authorized contractors and SLAC University Technical Representative (UTR) personnel at all projects listed.

Work areas in the research yard will be barricaded and posted. In addition, PEP Ring Road will be limited to one lane near the SLD Gas Pad. Please be careful when walking or driving near this and other construction sites, and obey the 10 mph speed restriction.

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