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Building the LCLS: An Image Gallery

Construction of the Linac Coherent Lights Source (LCLS) continues at a rapid pace. Since the completion of tunneling earlier this year, crews have finished out the Far Experimental Hall and X-ray Tunnel, installed utility systems in the Central Utilities Plant and throughout the facility, and are approaching completion of the Near Experimental Hall (NEH). Support pedestals are now in place inside the Beam Transport Hall and Undulator Hall, and soon installation of vacuum chambers and beam steering magnets will begin. Next week crews will arrive to pave the parking lot adjacent to the NEH.

Over the next few weeks, the focus of the LCLS project will change from conventional facility construction to hardware installation, as major construction draws toward completion.

“Two years ago, among the Stanford Band and notable dignitaries, LCLS broke ground and started construction for the LCLS Conventional Facilities,” said Jess Albino, associate project director of civil construction for LCLS. “Today, the dedication shown by the LCLS team, especially Conventional Facilities staff and Turner Construction, is apparent as we rapidly approach completion and the handover to the technical installation folks. It’s truly amazing—and at the same time humbling.”

Two workers install support systems inside the Undulator Hall. In total, there are 66 undulator support pedestals such as the two visible here. Each is filled with sand and wrapped with a protective jacket to minimize expansion due to temperature changes.

Workers inside the Undulator Hall use lasers to precisely align the placement of components.

In the LCLS Beam Dump area, shown above, the electron beam is separated and discarded after the X-ray beam has been produced.

Close-up of the Beam Dump housing. The stacked metal plates (upper left) will be installed into the adjacent pit, where they will be used to absorb the electron beam.

Workers inspect utility lines inside a shielded passageway adjacent to the Front End Enclosure.

The Front End Enclosure, which will house diagnostic equipment for taking measurements of the X-ray beam after it leaves the Undulator Hall.

One of three experimental hutches inside the Near Experimental Hall. The small square on the left wall is the window through which the X-ray beam will pass into the next hutch.

SULI writing student Zoe Macintosh stands inside the underground X-ray Tunnel next to a ventilation shaft, which leads to the surface. The X-ray Tunnel connects the Near Experimental Hall and the Far Experimental Hall.

The cavernous Far Experimental Hall, which will house the final three experimental hutches once it is completed.

—Brad Plummer, SLAC Today, July 25, 2008