Accelerator Update for July 23, 2008 - July 25, 2008

Wednesday July 23

The day shift began with Operations monitoring the Recycler (RR) stash (285.3E10), with the Antiproton Source stacking (24.6E10), with the Main Injector, Booster, and Linac operating normally, with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) waiting for the next store, with DZero (D0) in access, and with the SciBooNE / MiniBooNE (BNB), NuMI, and Meson MTest experiments taking beam.

At 8:50 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (B:IPRF23) tripped off and caused two Booster RF stations (BR13 & 14) to also trip. Everything reset.

D0 came out of access at 9:27 AM.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 9:54 AM.

Pbar experts began stacktail studies at 10:41 AM.

A TeV expert began a one-hour chromaticity study at 10:42 AM.

Operations put the Tevatron (TeV) into shot setup at 10:49 AM.

Operations prepared MI-31 for a ten-minute access at 1:08 PM.

Operations established store 6312 at 1:21 PM with an initial luminosity of 283.06E30.

The Pbar stacktail studies ended at 1:36 PM.

At 3:15 PM, LRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 3:26 PM, a Booster kicker (MP02) tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 3:58 PM that the Recycler had stashed antiprotons two times during the day shift.

Around 4 PM, the MI Power Supply interlock Loop (MI PSLOOP) tripped off on a ground fault. Experts investigated.

At 4:17 PM, Operations hipotted MI. There was a lot of sparking and many spikes to ground. After a few minutes of this, everything cleared and the hipot stabilized.

MI resumed ramping at 4:49 PM.

At 4:57 PM, BRF10 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 5:15 PM that a MI expert was conducting a MI-30 collimator study and that a Booster expert was doing a transverse damper study.

At 5:20 PM, LRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:02 PM, a Pbar Debuncher septum (D:ISEPV) tripped off on a ground fault indication. It reset.

At 7:38 PM, D:ISEPV tripped off again. It reset. Operations contacted an expert.

Operations established beam to MTest at 8:05 PM.

At 8:13 PM, LRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 9:24 PM, a Linac Klystron RF station (KRF6) tripped off. It would not reset. Operations called in a Linac expert.

Operations reported at 10:05 PM that the MI and Booster studies had both ended.

A Linac expert reported that KRF6 was repaired. Pbar resumed stacking by 11:59 PM.

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

Thursday July 24

The midnight shift began with monitoring store 6312 (85.62E30) and the stash (129.2E10), with Pbar stacking (22.2E10), with the BNB, NuMI, and MTest experiments taking beam.

LCW technicians reported at 6:16 AM that they were beginning to clean the MI-20 heat exchanger.

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

At 8:01 AM, a Booster vacuum ion pump (B:IPRF17) tripped off and caused BRF7 & 8 to trip off. Everything reset.

At 8:48 AM, the MI-10 enclosure interlocks dropped. The Recycler stash was lost. Interlock experts investigated.

Operations put Pbar into standby mode at 8:55 AM.

Operations began preparing MI for an access at 9:06 AM.

Interlock experts accessed MI-10 at 9:35 AM.

A kicker expert reported at 9:56 AM that she had repaired the Booster kicker problem (MP02).

MI experts reported at 10:04 AM that they found the cause of the MI ground faults; a disused copper airline downstream of Q103 was touching the bus.

A TeV expert reported at 10:06 AM that he had completed a beam position and angle change at B0.

Operators reported at 10:26 AM that they had searched and secured MI. Interlock experts reported that they had found and replaced a bad relay.

Operations terminated store 6312 at 11 AM.

Operations prepared the D0 and CDF collision halls for access at 11:19 AM.

At 12:26 PM, LRF5 tripped off and would not reset. Operators reported a smell of smoke. Linac experts investigated.

Operations put an energy conservation timeline into the Time Line Generator at 12:41 PM.

CDF came out of access at 1:18 PM.

D0 came out of access at 1:29 PM.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 2:08 PM.

At 3 PM, a Linac quadrupole power supply (L:QPS304) tripped off. Operators and an expert swapped out several control cards and the supply reset.

Linac resumed sending beam at 3:17 PM.

At 3:21 PM, LRF4 tripped off. Linac experts brought it back online.

Pbar resumed stacking at 3:23 PM.

BNB and MTest resumed taking beam around 3:24 PM.

TeV experts began a proton only study at 3:47 PM.

NuMI experts began a target scan at 3:58 PM.

A MI expert began a 30-minute study at 4:29 PM.

At 4:32 PM, LRF5 tripped off for the first of two times in 16 minutes. It reset.

At 5:45 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

The NuMI target scan ended and NuMI resumed taking normal beam at 6:32 PM.

At 7:31 PM, a Linac quadrupole power supply (L:QPS225) tripped off. Operators responded, swapped control cards (to no effect), and continued their investigation. They discovered a blown fuse. They had the quadrupole power supply on about an hour later.

At 8:04 PM, LRF4 tripped off for the first of four times in 53 minutes. It reset.

At 8:45 PM, Operations reported receiving high temperature alarms on the Electron Cooling cooling section solenoids. Operations contacted experts.

Operations turned the Pelletron back on at 10:13 PM.

At 11:09 PM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:43 PM, LRF4 tripped off. It reset.

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

Friday July 25

The midnight shift began with TeV experts conducting studies, with Operations monitoring the stash (151.8E10), with Pbar stacking (30.3E10), and with the BNB, NuMI, and MTest experiments taking beam.

TeV experts completed their studies at 12:59 AM.

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 1:17 AM.

At 1:48 AM, MIRF14 tripped off. It reset

Operations put the TeV through another wet squeeze at 1:50 AM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 2:14 AM.

Operations established store 6317 at 3:54 AM with an initial luminosity of 179.43E30.

At 6:54 AM, MI suffered a vacuum burst. Everything reset.

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

The Plans for Friday and the Weekend

The plans for today are to resume normal stacking, stashing, and storing.

Accelerator Update Archive

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