Preparations for MAX

The first floor slab has now been cast for MAX IV’s large ring-shaped building – a milestone in the work on the research facility, which is growing at a rapid pace in north-east Lund. The construction of the world’s most modern synchrotron radiation facility is keeping to schedule and is expected to be finished in 2015. Out at the MAX IV construction site, you get an idea of the centre’s dimensions. Between 150 and 200 construction workers work here every day. Lorries, diggers and concrete trucks drive back and forth, and behind a small hill you can catch a glimpse of a sea of caravans, where many of the builders, who come from all over Sweden, live during the week. On the day LUM visits the site, the first floor slab is cast for the large 3GeV ring, the MAX Laboratory’s fourth ring with a diameter of 620 metres and an inner courtyard the size of one and a half football pitches. The tunnel building that will hold the linear accelerator has almost been completely cast.