Neutrino tunnel cleaned after fire

From the September 1969 issue of the CERN Courier: On the morning of Sunday, 31 August, fire broke out in the middle of the outer tunnel in the south-east PS area, which houses the k 11 low-momentum separated pion beam and the neutrino beam which will feed the heavy-liquid bubble chamber Gargamelle. The neutrino beam was being tested. It took the CERN firemen over two hours to put out the blaze, and the photograph gives some idea of the damage. Fortunately, no-one was injured. However, a whole series of cables were burned out and the pulsed magnets, the vacuum system and the beam control system were damaged by the intense heat and falling white-hot debris. Some of the synthetic mastic sealing of the building was destroyed. Every effort is being made to have the k11 beam operating again as soon as possible after the annual PS shutdown. With more than VI 2 million photographs already taken, the k 11 experiment was scheduled to run for a few weeks before the shutdown. An investigation is under way to see how safety conditions can be improved before Gargamelle comes into operation. The accident should not affect the schedule for other experiments.