Ithaca Firefighters responded to an alarm of fire at Wilson Synchrotron at 12:47 this morning. While responding, units heard Cornell Life Safety radio traffic that there was a smoke condition in the north section of the underground accelerator ring. Upon arrival the smoke condition was confirmed. Crews entered the building and made their way towards the north part of the underground ring.The fire was quickly put out, but damage is estimated at $5,000 to $10,000.
Many students don't know we even have a particle accelerator on campus, and its uses are mysterious to us non-science people:
The particle accelerator runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week with the exception of maintenance and improvement periods. The cost of energy, maintenance, equipment and staff salaries is covered by an annual budget of approximately $20 million.
At this point, students who don’t know much about physics are probably asking what all this means.
Prof. David G. Cassel, physics, associate director of LEPP, was more than happy to answer that question.
“It accelerates particles,” he said with a smile.
No comments:
Post a Comment