CERN: LHC start-up

With this note we want to inform you about the latest
schedule and planning of the LHC start-up, as it was
agreed yesterday in a special meeting chaired by the
Director-General, bringing together the experiments and
the LHC machine.

Based on the good progress for the cool down of the LHC
sectors, and on the powering tests from two sectors, the
following planning was arrived at:

1) End of June:  The LHC is expected to be cooled down.
               The experiments are requested to have
               their beam pipes baked out.

2) Mid of July:  The experimental caverns will be closed
               after the caverns and tunnel have been
               patrolled. From then on the controlled
               access system will be fully activated.

3) End of July:  First particles may be injected, and the
               commissioning with beams and collisions
               will start.

4) It is expected that it will take about 2 months to have
 first collisions at 10 TeV.

5) Energy of the 2008 run: Agreed to be 10 TeV. The machine
 considers this to be a safe setting to optimize up-time
 of the machine until the winter shut-down (starting
 likely around end of November). Therefore, simulations
 can now start for 10 TeV.

6) The winter shut-down will then be used to commissioning
 and train the magnets up to full current, such that the
 2009 run will start at the full 14 TeV design energy.