Things you should do prior to coming to CERN, especially as an external user:

• CERN's Hotel and Hostel only offer a limited number of rooms, inquire and book as soon as possible. HiRadMat cannot guarantee that experimental teams can stay in CERN accommodation during their stay.
• We recommend that experimental teams have at least one car at their disposal for travel between the different relevant HiRadMat locations (HiRadMat control room at Meyrin Site, CERN Control Room at Prevessin Site). CERN cars cannot be used by external users.
• Check the list of mandatory safety courses and especially for those who need to accompany the experiment during installation. A great deal of the safety courses can be passed before coming to CERN already.
• Transmit a list of all people that comprise the experimental team and who will be present during installation and beam time. Fill out the external user registration form prior to your arrival and send the necessary documents to the registration service. With everything done right you should be able to obtain a CERN access card and a CERN computer account on arrival.
• Early on, determine and communicate to HiRadMat which members of the experimental team need to accompany the experiment during installation in the tunnel.
  • These individuals need to bring a dosimeter issued by their home institute and a medical certificate indicating that they are allowed to work in controlled areas
  • Together with this facilitate an exchange between your home institute’s RP department and RP at CERN for a proper exchange of your personal dose measurements
  • As two class-room safety courses (self-rescue mask and controlled area radio-protection) are necessary, please arrange for a sufficiently early arrival before installation.
  • The availability of safety shoes and helmets, which are both mandatory during access to the irradiation area, should be discussed with HiRadMat Management. Self-rescue masks and operational dosimeters will be provided by HiRadMat free of charge.
• Put together a list of activities (and associated risks) and how much time you need to spent in the surface lab during assembly. Ideally, experimental teams also bring their own tools (if necessary). A good practice is that experiments send additional equipment together with their experimental chamber to make sure everything that is needed for the preparation within the surface laboratory is indeed there.
• If your experiment has to be send to CERN for your beam time check with RP how the design and fabrication of your experimental chamber can help to reduce shipping costs, especially for radioactive shipping back to the home institute.
  • Please note that experimental chambers cannot be stored at CERN after beam time and experimental chambers must be returned to the host institute once acceptable activation levels have been reached.
  • HiRadMat does not offer any capabilities to open experimental chambers after beam time. This has to be performed by the experimental teams at their home institute!
  • If an experimental set-up needs to be returned back to the home institute, please make sure that your home institute’s RSO and RP department are certified by CERN’s radioactive shipping service.
  • Check if any of the equipment that is foreseen to be used in the experiment is under any export or import embargoes. This can potentially apply to:
    • radiation hard cameras
    • cameras with extremely high frame rates
    • laser Doppler vibtrometers
    • high frequency DAQs
    • certain vacuum equipment
    • high performance materials
    • In general, try to avoid items that are considered ‘dual use’ goods.
• If you need auxiliary systems like vacuum pumps, gas bottles, HEPA filters or flexlines, please convene with HiRadMat management. There is a stock of equipment that can be used by users as we are constantly trying to reduce the amount of radioactive equipment and waste.
• The service of HiRadMat includes the alignment of the experimental set-ups by the survey team. For this purpose metrological data of an experiment is vital and needs to be provided by the experimental team. If your home institute does not offer metrology services please contact the HiRadMat management for metrology measurements (potentially subject to a charge) at CERN.
  • Alignment precision is usually on the order of 0.1 mm. If a better alignment is critical for a successful experiment, please contact the HiRadMat team as soon as possible!