buildings

Building a solid future for science

The new target station and experimental hall building will make full use of the knowledge and experience derived from operations in the existing experimental halls, and will be fully matched to the needs of modern neutron scattering instrumentation and experiments.

The route of the proton beam transport line from the synchrotron to the new target station has displaced a large number of workshops and support laboratories. A new support building to accommodate workshops, offices and assembly areas was completed near the end of 2004.

Experimental hall building

The new experimental hall housing the second target station and instruments surrounding the target will be a hugely impressive building being nearly twice the size of the current ISIS experimental hall. Five Olympic sized swimming pools can be contained within the 80m x 90m floor area whilst with a height of 26 metres, the building will have a volume of around 187,000 cubic metres, equivalent to around 249 million bottles of wine.

The Second Target Project has appointed a building design team led by White Young Green working with Anshen|Dyer Associates as the architects. Construction contracts have been awarded to Costain. The target station building is scheduled for completion in early 2006.

The building incorporates three overhead cranes, building services, drive-in drive-out facility for articulated lorries, reinforced areas for the location of the target equipment, a series of service tunnels and ground ducts for the scientific equipment, underground sumps, mezzanine floors with office areas, and a range of laboratory areas to support experiments.

In addition to the main infrastructure, the east side of the building will have offices and laboratories located externally to the main experimental area, incorporating the main building entrance and reception areas, areas for relaxation, and conference rooms. A planned viewing gallery will enable members of the public to follow activities inside the experimental areas.

Detailed ground surveyors have been completed, testing the chalk bed-rock integrity and surface water drainage flows in preparation for construction of the foundations, service tunnels and 3 metre deep well for the target station concrete and steel shielding monolith. 

The building design has focussed on maximising the flexibility of the building for current and future operations. At the same time the design team have attempted to introduce visually pleasing aspects whilst still maximising economies of scale. An impressive front entrance faces east towards the main body of the Rutherford Appleton campus. The building has a smaller footprint and considerably lower roof than was originally anticipated, lessening the hall’s heating and cooling costs.

Visitors to the facility enter over a sweeping footbridge and arrive in a reception area on the second floor of the building, from which there is easy access to the experimental areas.