A study on future large accelerators [1] has considered a facility, which is
designed, built and operated by a worldwide collaboration of equal partner
institutions, and which is remote from most of these institutions. The full
range of operation was considered including commi-ssioning, machine
development, maintenance, trouble shooting and repair. Experience from existing
accele-rators confirms that most of these activities are already performed
'remotely'. The large high-energy physics ex-periments and astronomy projects,
already involve inter-national collaborations of distant institutions. Based on
this experience, the prospects for a machine operated remotely from far sites
are encouraging. Experts from each laboratory would remain at their home
institution but continue to participate in the operation of the machine after
construction. Experts are required to be on site only during initial
commissioning and for par-ticularly difficult problems. Repairs require an
on-site non-expert maintenance crew. Most of the interventions can be made
without an expert and many of the rest resolved with remote assistance. There
appears to be no technical obstacle to controlling an accelerator from a
distance. The major challenge is to solve the complex management and
communication problems.Comment: ICALEPCS 2001 abstract ID No. FRBI001 invited talk submitting author
F. Willeke 5 pages, 1 figur
