Dear Colleagues

I hope you will be pleased to hear that we are close to accepting the new MRI scanner and building.

Over the next few weeks there are some important events that you may be interested in or want to note

This week the decoration of the inside of the building is completed and the final stages of installation of electrics, air con, fire alarm and security should be reached.

Monday the 23rd : MRI delivery. Crane on site at 7.30am, delivery starts at 8am. They expect to complete by 2pm. Heavy rain is predicted, of course.

Tuesday the 24th : the MRI access route will be bricked up and a door installed. The RF cage will be completed.

Wednesday the 25th : commissioning of the MRI magnet begins. This includes attaching to the power supply, installing all the MRI equipment, attaching all the cooling systems.

Importantly (for those on site) Tuesday the 31st : The MRI is topped up with Helium. Large Helium dewars will be wheeled along the MRI corridor.

Tuesday the 31st : The first ramp of the magnet to 3Tesla starts. This allows the shimming of the magnet. The magnet is then taken back to earth's field, adjustments are made and it is taken back up to 3 Tesla. although the risk is small, this is the time when a quench can occur. If that happens, large amounts of Helium gas is released and the field, momentarily extends out beyond the 0.5milliTesla line.

Later that day: MRI the final phase commissioning starts.

6th June : The handover of the building starts. On that day the operation of the building is demonstrated (air con, power, plumbing, security, alarms,...)

8th June : MRI testing by our team begins.

9th June : final acceptance tests of all the building operations is completed

10th June : Building handover.

Issues still to be resolved

Integration into the IT system Editing of local rules for MRI use Applications training (likely to be late July) Pulse programming training (date being negotiated - this is in Carolina, US) Installation of parahydrogen generator Installation of polariser Installation of stim PC(s) and stimulus delivery

Hope that helps

Gary