On the Cyclotron at the Swiss Institute for Nuclear
Research
(Schweizerisches Institut für Nuklearphysik, 1968)
The construction of a cyclotron was proposed in 1966 to the president of
the research council of the
Swiss National Science Foundation, Prof. Dr. A von Muralt,
as a joint project of
the Swiss Universities of Basel, Zürich, Freiburg, Lausanne,
and Neuenburg.
Some of the supporters of the petition were :
Profs. Kurt Alder (Basel), Eugen Baumgartner (Basel), E. Brun
(Zürich), Ch. Haenny (Lausanne), D. Huber (Fribourg),
V. Meyer (Zürich), J. Rossel (Neuchatel), H.R. Striebel
(Basel), R. Wagner (Basel), C. Zangger (Neuchatel), and
Hermann Grunder (Basel), who became Director of the Thomas Jefferson National
Accelerator Facility in 1985.
First, it was unclear whether the cyclotron should be located
in Zürich or in Basel.
It was finally built in Villigen at the Swiss Institute for Nuclear
Research, which was founded in 1968, and became the
Paul Scherrer Institute in 1988 after the merger of the
institute with the Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research
(Eidgenoessisches Institut für
Reaktorforschung, EIR).
The final PSI 590 MeV Ring Cyclotron
(protons, 590 MeV, current < 2mA, power 1.2e6 W, first beam 1974),
constructed between
1968 and 1974, was designed H.A. Willax with the SIN-team.
Below some pictures of the 88 inch Berkeley sector focused cyclotron
(completed in 1961) are shown. The pictures were taken in the course
of the preparatory work for the SIN cyclotron - they were rediscovered
in a wall cupboard at the Institute of Physics in Basel.
Frankenstein's lab.
Created February 17, 2005 by
Andreas Aste.
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