Wall Construction

The construction of the shielding wall has been significantly delayed but is now proceeding ahead.

Once excavation for the wall footing began, it rapidly became clear that the existing building walls had no foundations of their own and therefore could not be safely dug under for the broader shielding wall foundations. The solution was to dig under small sections, pour foundations, let it set, and then repeat another small section. This involved getting new drawings from a structural engineer and additional inspections from the building inspector. We did get the building permit on July 26 and pouring of the first section of the foundation began. We now expect completion of the shielding wall by around Aug. 18, so a month has been lost here.

The floor plan below shows the DPF within the shielded room. The shielding wall is white, the capacitors blue and the electrodes and vacuum chamber are in the small white circle. The gold outline is the copper grounding plate on the floor.