Accelerator Update for February 8, 2008 - February 11, 2008

Friday February 8

The day shift began with Operations monitoring the Tevatron (TeV) store 5891 (40.08E30) and the Recycler stash (312.2E10), with the Antiproton Source stacking (37.4E10), with the Main Injector (MI), Linac, and Booster operating normally, with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and D-Zero (D0) using the colliding beams, and with the NuMI and SciBooNE / MiniBooNE (BNB) experiments taking beam.

At 8:15 AM, a Linac Klystron RF station (KRF4) tripped off. At the same time the Linac Debuncher was having a problem and the MI beam permit had dropped due to bad beam positions. Operators contacted experts.

Operations terminated store 5891 around 8:32 AM.

Operations began preparing the TeV at 8:40 AM for a scheduled access to repair the sector F13 vacuum problems.

Operations prepared D0 for an access at 9:15 AM.

Operations prepared Pbar and Booster for access at 9:31 AM.

A Pbar power supply expert reported at 9:36 AM that he had replaced the Pbar Debuncher extraction septum capacitor bank charging power supply chassis.

Operations prepared CDF and NuMI for an access at 9:43 AM.

At 10:45 AM, Booster experts, who were investigating what might have caused the Booster smoke alarm on the previous shift, reported that they had found melted insulation on the load resistor cables for BRF5, 6, 7 & 19. They began repairs and an investigation.

Vacuum technicians reported at 11:47 AM that they had completed their work on the TeV F sector vacuum pumps. They came out of access.

CDF and D0 came out of access at 11:51 AM.

At 12:38 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

NuMI came out of access at 1:46 PM.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 1:55 PM.

Booster came out of access at 2:30 PM.

Operations had established beam to Booster, BNB, NuMI, and Pbar by 3:04 PM.

At 3:05 PM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

Pbar experts reported at 3:27 PM that they had bypassed a Pbar Debuncher RF station (DRF1-6).

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 3:33 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:58 PM.

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

At 4:11 PM, an expert reported that there was problem with the BNB autotune program that had halted their beam. He resolved the problem and Operations restored beam.

At 4:22 PM, LRF5 tripped off. It reset.

A MI collimator expert reported at 4:33 PM that they were leaving the collimators in their out positions for the weekend.

At 4:42 PM, KRF 2 & 7 tripped off. They reset.

At 5:25 PM, a Pbar Debuncher quadrupole power supply (D:Q724) tripped off. Operators reported that this quad had tripped off a couple of times in the last week. The trip didn’t seem to affect stacking. It reset.

At 5:32 PM, BRF9 tripped off for the first of eight times in about 2.5 hours.

At 5:36 PM, Operations reported that after the transfer of antiprotons, the TeV suffered a quench at sector B3 due to bad beam positions.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 10:22 PM.

A TeV expert began a dipole study at 10:50 PM.

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

Saturday February 9

The midnight shift began with TeV experts conducting studies, with Operations monitoring the stash (168.1E10), with Pbar stacking (20.0E10), and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

The TeV studies ended at 1:29 AM.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 1:42 AM.

At 2:03 AM, the NuMI beam permit tripped off due to an under current trip. Operators reset the trip, but then NuMI tripped off due to an exhaust fan (E:SR3FHI). Operators investigated.

Also at 2:03 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 2:15 AM.

At 2:36 AM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

Operators reported at 2:38 AM that they had gone out to change a control card for the NuMI D20 CAMAC crate, which contained the exhaust fan, but found that the MADC was missing its 15 Volts. Operators replaced the MADC and this fixed the problem.

At 2:46 AM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:48 AM, Operations reported that three MI-10 vacuum pumps tripped off. Later, after the shot setup, operators reset these pumps.

At 3:55 AM, Operations reported that the PBJ system failed while trying to print the level for T:ABRITE. Later, per expert instructions, operators commented out that part of the program.

At 4:01 AM, LRF5 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established store 5897 at 4:08 AM with an initial luminosity of 181.14E30.

At 4:29 AM, LRF5 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:25 AM, KRF1 tripped off for the first of four times in about 35 minutes on a coil comparator fault and then on three LCW flow faults. It reset.

At 5:50 AM, BRF1 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:47 AM, LRF5 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 8 AM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the midnight shift.

At 10:53 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:53 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 12:33 PM, a Booster damper (B:AR5KW1) tripped off. It reset.

At 2:58 PM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

At 3:52 PM, the same Booster damper tripped off. It reset.

At 3:56 PM, BRF14 tripped off. It reset.

At 6:29 PM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 8 PM that the Recycler had stashed eight times during the last 12 hours.

Operations terminated store 5897 at 8:07 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 8:20 PM.

At 9:19 PM, LRF4 tripped off twice. It reset.

At 9:21 PM, KRF5 tripped off. It reset.

At 9:48 PM, a Pbar Debuncher vacuum pump tripped off. Later, operators turned the pump back on after the store was established.

Operations established store 5898 at 10:19 PM with an initial luminosity of 213.62E30.

At 10:40 PM, KRF3 and 4 tripped off. KRF3 came back on right away, but it took a few minutes to get KRF4 to come back on.

Sunday February 10

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 5898 and the stash, with Pbar stacking, and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

At 12:51 AM, LRF2 tripped off for the first of three times in one minute. It reset.

At 2:08 AM, BRF13 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:54 AM, the Booster damper tripped off for the first of six times in about 4.5 hours. Operators contacted a Booster expert.

At 5:55 AM, BRF9 tripped off for the first of seven times in about 1.5 hours. It reset.

Operations reported at 8 AM that the Recycler had stashed six times during the last 12 hours.

At 8:24 AM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:30 AM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:50 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:54 AM, the Booster damper tripped off for the first of three times in 30 minutes. It reset.

At 9:24 AM, BRF9 tripped off for the first of four times in 40 minutes. It reset.

At 10:19 AM, the Booster damper tripped off. It reset.

At 10:27 AM, Operations reported problems with the BNB autotune program. Operators contacted experts who had it fixed in about 30 minutes.

At 10:39 AM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:03 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 12:09 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 12:18 PM, BRF9 tripped off a few more times. Operators contacted an expert who later came in and replaced a resistor in its modulator.

At 12:49 PM, BRF14 tripped off. It reset.

At 1:30 PM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 1:34 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:14 PM, Operations reported Booster beam position problems. Operators ran through an injection tune and this fixed the problem.

At 4:34 PM, MIRF15 tripped off and caused the NuMI beam permit to trip. Everything reset.

At 2:59 PM, BRF9 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:07 PM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:46 PM, BRF10 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:57 PM, BRF18 tripped off. It reset.

At 5 PM, Operations reported that they had to reset BRF9 trips many times over the next 46 minutes. Experts investigated, but could not find a solution for the trips.

At 5:45 PM, BRF10 tripped off. It reset.

A TeV expert began an end-of-store study at 5:59 PM.

Operations terminated store 5898 at 7:20 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 7:51 PM.

Operations reported at 8 PM that the Recycler had stashed eight times during the last 12 hours.

Operations established store 5899 at 9:27 PM with an initial luminosity of 252.35E30.

At 10:59 PM, BRF18 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:35 PM, BRF9 tripped off for the first of four times in 2.5 hours. It reset.

Monday February 11

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 5899 and the stash, with Pbar stacking, and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

At 12:14 AM, a TeV sector B11 separator sparked and caused the loss of about 50E30 of luminosity.

At 12:32 AM, MIRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 1:02 AM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:18 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 3:18 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:06 AM, BRF9 tripped off for the first of two times in about 15 minutes.

At 5:18 AM, the Pelletron tripped off. It reset.

At 5:22 AM, KRF1 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:58 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 6:18 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF23) tripped off and caused BRF13 & 14 to trip off. Everything reset.

At 6:37 AM, BRF13 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 8 AM that the Recycler had stashed seven times during the last 12 hours.

The Plans for Monday

The plans for today are to stack, stash, and store.

Accelerator Update Archive

More Information
For Tevatron luminosity charts and the current status of Fermilab's accelerators and detectors (live!), please go to Fermilab Now.

Comments and Suggestions
What do you think about the Accelerator Updates? Please send comments and suggestions to: accelupdates@fnal.gov.