The AA disappearing under concrete shielding

When the AA started up in July 1980, the machine stood freely in its hall, providing visitors with a view through the large window in the AA Control Room. The target area, in which the high-intensity 26 GeV/c proton beam from the PS hit the production target, was heavily shielded, not only towards the outside but also towards the AA-Hall. However, electrons and pions emanating from the target with the same momentum as the antiprotons, but much more numerous, accompanied these through the injection line into the AA ring. The pions decayed with a half-time corresponding to approximately a revolution period (540 ns), whereas the electrons lost energy through synchrotron radiation and ended up on the vacuum chamber wall. Electrons and pions produced the dominant component of the radiation level in the hall and the control room. With operation times far exceeding original expectations, the AA had to be buried under concrete shielding in order to reduce the radiation level by an order of magnitude.