Page 204 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

CHAPTER 9
Consolidation and the future
9.1 The millennium
There was little or no modernisation of the instruments in the period 1991-1994. Fortunately, after this very difficult time for
the ILL, in 2000, Dubbers, the Director, launched a programme
of reinvestment. On 1st January 2000 an annual budget of €3M was earmarked for the update and renewal of instruments in the Millennium Plan. The budget came partly from the ILL (from economies), part from the partners, and also from external finance in particular from Europe. The British part was directed towards specific instruments. In the plan 9 instruments were rebuilt or new. For example the choppers on IN5 have been completely replaced; apart from being new and implementing contre-rotation, important for high-performance rotating machinery, they allow a bigger beam to be used.
Reactor safety is obviously of prime importance. Earthquake tremor standards are more rigorous than when the buildings were constructed. The reactor also had to be protected against attack. To take account of these there had to be some building works, in
particular modifying the attachment of the reactor building with 195