Design and construction of the ISR

TL;DR

This paper details the design, construction, and early performance of CERN's ISR, highlighting technological choices and milestones during its development in the context of 1950s accelerator efforts.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical account of the ISR's design decisions, construction process, and initial operational achievements at CERN.

Findings

Successful commissioning in 1971

Key technological innovations implemented

First-year performance metrics achieved

Abstract

The emergence of the ISR project at CERN is described in the light of the situation at CERN at the end of the 1950s when the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) was still under construction. The discussions leading to the project are put into context with world-wide efforts to build larger and more powerful accelerators at that time; the evolution of the project before approval is sketched. The basic design considerations and the most significant technological choices are explained. The construction period is summarized by highlighting important milestones and the performance achieved during commissioning in 1971, the first year of running, is given.