The ILC site visits

In my role as the deputy LCC Detector R&D liaison, I have visited the recent workshops of the SiD detector and ILD detector collaborations in Tokyo and Oshu City, respectively. The purpose was to give an overview of where we are in the process of documenting and advertising technologies developed for the Linear Colliders.

While I generally enjoy my work, there was an even more fun aspect to these workshops. Both were coupled with a visit to the ILC candidate site in the Iwate prefecture. One started from Ichinoseki, the other one started from Oshu City. Both of these cities are candidates to host the ILC campus. From my home in Sendai, it's 34 minutes by Shinkansen to Ichinoseki, and another ~30 min by local train to Oshu City. That's pretty much commuting distance.

The local support for the ILC is very visible. There are ILC banners at the lamp posts in Ichinoseki, which you can see in Google Street View, for example, or, of course by just wandering down the streets physically rather than virtually.

Around the planned site there are several signs of support, like the two pictures to the left.

The area around the planned site is very rural. During the visits, several references were made to the nature and to the peaceful and quiet environment. The construction of the ILC will certainly change that, but hopefully, the operations phase after construction won't be too intrusive. The exact location of the campus and the sizes of the site campus and the science city are still under discussion. While some people might enjoy living close to the site in rural Iwate, others will prefer the proximity to shops and businesses of the science city. Or, like me, to live in Sendai.