All employees move to the new timecard system today

Starting today, every Fermilab employee should begin using the new Fermilab Time and Labor electronic reporting system to create and submit timecards. This change unites laboratory employees within a single, modernized system and helps Fermilab comply with Department of Energy requirements.

To help with this transition, please submit your weekly timecard through the new FTL system, which you can access here, by Friday, June 25.

For more information about the new timecard system, please visit the FTL launch tools page. You can create practice timecards, review training materials, check whether your browser has the settings and software it needs, and check when local support teams will be available in your division, section or center.

Please note that the first time you enter your Services Account username and password to log in to the new FTL system, it could take two minutes for the page to load. If it takes longer than two minutes, please try to log in again.

If that does not work, or if you have other questions or concerns, please contact your local support team. You can also contact the Service Desk by phone at x2345 or by opening a Service Desk ticket.

FTL support team members will be available at the Timecard Doctor booth during lunch hours in the Wilson Hall atrium today and on Wednesday, June 23; Friday, June 25; and Monday, June 28.

New exhibit: Accelerators for America's Future

"So, what are accelerators good for?" Many Fermilab employees have heard this question from visitors, neighbors and friends.

Now you can find the answers in a new exhibit on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall titled "Accelerators for America's Future." The exhibit is named after the DOE workshop that brought together 400 accelerator scientists from industry, medical institutions, universities and national laboratories in October 2009.

The exhibit highlights six application areas of accelerators: energy, environment, medicine, industry, discovery science and security and defense. A gallery of 24 images shows specific applications within these areas. If you have questions or comments, please contact the Office of Communication at 630-840-3351. Print copies of a report that summarizes the workshop's findings will be available in July.

--Kurt Riesselmann

Superconducting RF cavity industrialisation

From ILC Newsline, June 17, 2010

Producing high gradient superconducting radiofrequency (SCRF) cavities that meet our demanding performance goals, are affordable and can be produced by industry represents one of the largest challenges on the way to making a solid project proposal for the ILC. The present 500-GeV ILC design requires about 18,000 nine-cell one-metre long niobium cavities (including spares) yielding an average operational field gradient of 31.5 megavolts per metre (MV/m). Although we can gain much experience from other projects (XFEL, Project X, etc) and from our own R&D programme, developing a worldwide capability to produce our cavities in industry represents an enormous challenge - one we need to address now. In that regard, a special satellite workshop on ILC cavity industrialisation was held in conjunction with the first IPAC meeting last month in Kyoto, Japan.

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