Fermi National Laboratory
 

Accelerator Update for February 25, 2008 - February 27, 2008

 

Monday February 25

The day shift began with Tevatron (TeV) experts investigating the cause of the midnight shift quench, with Operations monitoring the Recycler stash (124.2E10), with the Antiproton Source stacking (21.8E10), with the Main Injector (MI), Linac, and Booster operating normally, with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and D-Zero (D0) waiting for the next store, with NuMI off for horn repair, and with the SciBooNE / MiniBooNE (BNB) experiments taking beam.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 8:50 AM.

At 9:23 AM, a Linac RF station (LRF5) tripped off for the first of three times in nine minutes. It reset.

TeV experts began a coupling study at 10:22 AM.

Operations put the TeV through a proton-only wet squeeze at 11:23 AM.

At 11:40 AM, the Pelletron tripped off. Operations contacted an expert who had the Pelletron back on 11 minutes later.

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 1:02 PM.

The Neutron Therapy Facility (NTF) completed treatment on their last patient for the day around 1:15 PM.

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 1:56 PM.

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 2:58 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:33 PM.

At 3:44 PM, a Linac Klystron RF station (KRF5) tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 4 PM that the Recycler had stashed antiprotons four times during the day shift.

Operations established store 5933 at 5:41 PM with an initial luminosity of 211.46E30.

At 5:53 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

FESS technicians reported at 6:02 PM that they were going to run the MI pond water pumps for an hour to take current measurements.

At 6:45 PM, BRF10 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:03 PM, a Pbar Debuncher RF (DRF1-6) began tripping off. Operators raised the driver current and this fixed the problem.

At 10:36 PM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at midnight that the Recycler had stashed five times during the evening shift.

Tuesday February 26

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 5933 (94.51E30) and the stash (161.7E10), with Pbar stacking (18.1E10), with NuMI off for horn repair, and with BNB taking beam.

At 12:18 AM, LRF2 tripped off for the first of three times in about 75 minutes. It reset.

At 12:22 AM, LRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 12:43 AM, the 750keV area buncher tripped off. It reset.

At 1:15 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IP61) tripped off. It reset.

At 2:50 AM, two Booster vacuum pumps (IP61 & 72) tripped off. They reset.

At 4:24 AM, BRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:47 AM, BRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:56 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 7:58 AM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the midnight shift.

At 8:07 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:19 AM, Operations reported that the MI beam had aborted several times due to bad beam positions.

At 8:53 AM, Operations reported that the Accumulator vertical damper pickup was stuck. An expert said that this wouldn’t cause any problems for the time being, but would with a large stack.

At 8:54 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 9:47 AM, a BNB vacuum pump (I:IP873) tripped off. It reset.

A MI expert began a multibatch slipstacking study at 9:54 AM.

At 10:02 AM, the 750 KeV area buncher tripped off. Experts investigated.

At 10:36 AM, MIRF3 tripped off. It reset. The trip was related to the slipstacking studies.

Operations reported at 10:59 AM that a Booster expert had been tuning all morning.

At 11:54 AM, Operations reported that three of the transfers for the last stash to the Recycler didn’t make it. Experts investigated.

At 11:55 AM, KRF6 tripped off due to a LCW flow fault. It reset.

At 12:53 PM, a number of Linac vacuum valves closed. Operators investigated; they didn’t find any vacuum problems and opened the valves.

The MI slipstacking studies ended at 1:04 PM.

TeV experts began an end-of-store orbit study at 1:12 PM.

Operations terminated store 5933 at 1:31 PM.

At 2:11 PM, a Booster power supply (B:BEX2) tripped off. It reset.

At 2:40 PM, two Booster vacuum pumps (B:IP61 & 72) tripped off.

Linac experts began installing filters on LRF3 at 3:09 PM to fix its wandering gradient problem.

Operations established store 5934 at 3:30 PM with an initial luminosity of 286.4E30.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:46 PM.

Operations reported at 3:56 PM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the day shift.

At 5:43 PM, the LRF3 gradient resumed its erratic operations. Experts investigated.

At 6:01 PM, BRF10 tripped off for the first of three times in four minutes. Operators bypassed the station and brought BRF19 on in its place.

Experts brought LRF3 back on line at 6:57 PM.

Pbar resumed stacking at 7:05 PM.

At 7:28 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

Operators brought BRF10 back on line at 8:36 PM and bypassed BRF19.

At 9:09 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:25 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 11:59 PM that the Recycler had stashed five times during the evening shift.

Wednesday February 27

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 5934 (101.86E30) and the stash (179.1E10), with Pbar stacking (14.1E10), with NuMI off for horn repair, and with BNB taking beam.

At 1:22 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:27 AM, BRF14 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:07 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 6:03 AM, the LRF3 gradient went erratic, again. Operators investigated and then called in an expert.

At 6:04 AM, LRF5 tripped off for the first of two times in about 20 minutes. It reset.

Operations reported at 7:55 AM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the midnight shift.

The Plans for Wednesday

The plans for today are to fix LRF3 and then resume stacking, stashing, and storing.

 

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