ICFA releases Reference Design Report for the International Linear Collider ILC

On February 8, the International Committee for Future Accelerators (ICFA) announced the release of the Reference Design Report (RDR) for the International Linear Collider ILC at a conference in Peking. The report describes for the first time the technical realization of the ILC, including a first cost estimate and it provides the basis for future design improvements and research work.

“With the publication of the ILC’s Reference Design Report, the project has reached another major milestone,” said Albrecht Wagner, chair of the International Committee for Future Accelerators and Director General of DESY.”

As part of the Reference Design Report, the members of the Global Design Effort under the leadership of Barry Barish also produced a preliminary value estimate of the cost for the ILC. The estimate contains three elements: 4.04 Billion € (4.9 Billion US $) for shared value of the high technology and conventional components, 1.48 Billion € (1.8 Billion US $) for site-related costs and approx. 2000 employees per year (or 13,000 person years).

Because of comparability reasons, the cost estimate analyzed only so called Deep Sites in which accelerators would be built approx. 100 meters below ground. In case the accelerator would be built close to the surface (Shallow Site, as planned for TESLA), this would lead to a series of consequences that have not been studied in the RDR. This is to be done as part of the next phase, the Engineering Design.