Accelerator Update for May 5, 2008 - May 7, 2008

Monday May 5

The day shift began with Operations monitoring Tevatron (TeV) store 6118 (100.85E30) and the Recycler stash (238.3E10), with the Antiproton Source (Pbar) stacking (14.5E10), with the Main Injector, Booster, and Linac operating normally, with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and DZero (D0) using the colliding beams, and with the NuMI and SciBooNE / MiniBooNE (BNB) experiments and the MesonMTest experiment taking beam.

At 8:22 AM, a Booster RF station (BRF9) tripped off. It reset.

At 8:25 AM, a Linac Klystron RF station (KRF3) tripped off. It reset.

At 8:38 AM, two people reported air conditioners that were off in the Booster galleries and the 400MeV area. Operators contacted the Duty Electrician and FESS personnel. Operators placed fans in these areas.

At 8:47 AM, BRF13 tripped off. It reset.

FESS personnel reported at 8:56 AM that they were turning off the TeV sectors C0 pond water pump to make repairs.

At 8:59 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (B:IPM02) tripped off and caused a kicker (B:MP02) to trip off. Everything reset.

At 9:10 AM, Operations reported that a cryo system cold compressor tripped off due to the loss of cooling water from the C0 pond water pump. Operators informed the Cryo Coordinator. FESS personnel said they would run a fire hose from a hydrant across the street to cool the compressors.

At 10:21 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

MI experts began a proton coalescing check at 10:22 AM.

Cryo system experts reported at 10:28 AM that they were replacing the helium bottle for the TeV sector A3 wet engine.

At 10:40 AM, the 400 MeV area tripped off twice due to bad beam positions. Linac experts tuned.

At 10:41 AM, BRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:59 AM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 12:44 PM that the TeV C0 pond water pump had been pulled out and inspected. Experts reported that its impeller system was damaged. They also reported that the water hose was installed and water was flowing.

At 12:54 PM, the TeV cryo system at sector B2 went unstable for a moment, but then recovered. Operators contacted the Cryo Coordinator.

A Pbar expert began a Pbar Debuncher cooling study at 1:22 PM.

Operations reported at 1:27 PM that experts turned on the #4 TeV sector C0 compressor and a few minutes later they turned on the #2 and #3 compressors.

At 2 PM, LRF2 tripped off. It reset.

A NuMI expert reported at 3 PM that the MINOS sump pump work was done.

At 3:28 PM, Operations reported that the MI magnet LCW system was running warm. Experts were investigating.

Operations terminated store 6118 at 3:40 PM.

MI RF experts reported at 3:41 PM that they wanted to take 15 minutes to work on the reverse power modules. Also, water technicians reported that they were putting the MI three-way LCW valve into manual mode to help cool down the MI LCW system.

At 3:44 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

An air conditioning technician reported at 3:53 PM that he was beginning work on the TeV sector D4 service building air conditioner.

Operations reported at 3:57 PM that the Recycler had stashed antiprotons six times during the day shift.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 4:05 PM. Operations disabled beam to MTest when they put the TeV into shot setup.

The Pbar Debuncher cooling study ended at 4:40 PM.

At 4:53 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:58 PM, MP03 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:41 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Water experts reported at 6 PM that they were making up water for the MI RF cavity LCW system.

At 6:07 PM, a Booster kicker (MP03) tripped off for the first of two times in about 45 minutes. It reset.

Operations established store 6119 at 6:11 PM with an initial luminosity of 278.5E30.

At 7:39 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:17 PM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF23) tripped off and caused BRF13 & 14 to trip off. Everything reset.

At 8:34 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:47 PM, cryo system experts at CHL reported that they were receiving Kautzky valve alarms, but they didn’t see any indications that the alarms were due to real leaks. They contacted the Cryo Coordinator.

Operations reported that LCW experts put the MI three-way mixing valve back into auto mode at 10:52 PM.

At 11:30 PM, a Booster vacuum pump (IP211) tripped off. It reset.

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

Tuesday May 6

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6119 (124.54E30) and the stash (177.3E10), with Pbar stacking (14.8E10), and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

Operations reported at 12:14 AM that the air conditioning unit for the 400 MeV area was operating normally.

At 12:44 AM, the TeV sector F4 LCW pump tripped off and caused the Tevatron Electron Lenses (TEL) #1 and #2 to trip off. The vacuum interlock also tripped off. Everything reset.

At 1:12 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 1:15 AM, a Booster kicker (MP03) tripped off for the first of four times in 6.5 hours. It reset.

At 2:09 AM, a Pbar beam valve (BV728) closed. It reset and opened.

At 2:35 AM, the Linac Klystron vernier tripped off on a LCW flow fault. It reset.

At 2:38 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:28 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:04 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 6:28 AM.

At 6:52 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:45 AM, MP03 tripped off. It reset.

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

At 8:49 AM, a Booster RF expert reported that BRF1 was operating poorly and he had turned it off and brought up BRF19 in its place. BRF1 will need to have its power amplifier replaced.

At 9:25 AM, the Linac low energy buncher tripped off. It reset.

At 9:31 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

Operations put an event into the Time Line Generator (TLG) around 9:57 AM to allow MI experts to conduct a coalescing alignment.

At 10:07 AM, the Linac high-energy buncher phase drifted low. Operators adjusted it back to its normal range.

At 10:08 AM, the Klystron buncher phase went low and out of tolerance. Operators adjusted it back into tolerance.

A MI expert began documenting beam positions at 10:12 AM.

A Pbar expert rebooted the Pbar CAMAC front-end (FE) at 10:13 AM to upload code.

At 10:18 AM, Operations reported that the Pbar auto tune program began having tuning problems. Operators halted Pbar beam and reloaded a good file. This problem was probably caused by the FE reboot.

At 10:43 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:52 AM, Operations reported that the TeV sector C3 upstream transfer line vacuum was going into and out of alarm. CHL will add another vacuum pump to the line in between stores.

Operations reported at 10:52 AM that a Booster expert, a controls expert, and an Operations Specialist will update the Booster rep-rate limiter so that BNB will receive more beam.

Operations disabled the MTest beam at 10:58 AM.

Operations terminated store 6119 at 11:23 AM. Operators prepared for the following jobs:

1. MADC replacement at CUB
2. Linac Klystron buncher phase controller board swap between the buncher and Klystron vernier to troubleshoot the phase wandering problems
3. A transfer of the transient recorder from MP02 to MP03
4. Operations will keep the TeV at 150-GeV while FESS and cryo experts work on the cooling strainers for TeV sector C0 compressor #1. All three compressors will be turned off and the 4-inch fire hose disconnected during this work.

Operations loaded an energy conservation time line into the TLG at 11:39 AM.

A controls expert reported at 11:42 AM that he had replaced the CUB CAMAC MADC.

A controls expert reported at 11:54 AM that he was replacing some cables on a Switchyard (SY) crate.

CDF experimenters reported at 12:11 PM that they had fixed some of the BLMs that were broken last week.

Booster came back online at 12:41 PM. Operations resumed sending beam to Pbar, BNB, and NuMI.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 1:15 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 1:43 PM.

Several MI experts began working on the MI beam at 1:47 PM.

A Pbar expert began positioning the target at 1:48 PM for increased yield.

At 1:49 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established store 6121 at 3:17 PM with an initial luminosity of 285.4E30.

Operations prepared the Pelletron for an access at 3:03 PM.

Two MI experts began to work on proton coalescing at 3:11 PM.

A Recycler expert began a Schottky detector study at 3:16 PM.

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

Operations reported at 5:13 PM that Pbar experts have managed to complete one shot of antiprotons to the Recycler in 17 seconds. This will be the new operating mode for stashing.

At 5:30 PM, KRF3 and KRF7 tripped off. They reset.

At 5:41 PM, a Booster kicker (MP03) tripped off again. It reset.

At 6:04 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 6:30 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 8 PM, the MI and BNB beam permit tripped off. Operators investigated and found that MP03 was off with no indication of the cause. Everything reset.

MTest experimenters reported at 8:08 PM that they were through with the beam for the night.

At 8:28 PM, Operations reported that a Pbar Accumulator RF station (ARF1) had tripped off several times during stashing. It reset.

At 8:41 PM, Operations reported that with this new shortened shot cycle they weren’t able to transfer as many antiprotons as before.

At 9:15 PM, MP03 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:31 PM, Operations reported that a Pbar Debuncher power supply’s (D:CWSP) current had dropped significantly for a short time just before noon.

At 10:40 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:46 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

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

Wednesday May 7

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring the store 6121 (104.97E30) and the stash (226.4E10), with Pbar stacking (22.5E10), and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

At 12:08 AM, ARF1 tripped off. It reset.

At 1:28 AM, Operations reported that the TeV sector F4 LCW pump #2 tripped off and caused the trip of the TEL1 & 2. The pump would not turn on remotely. Operators investigated and found the pump in local control. The pump would not stay on in remote, so operators left it on and in local. Later, Operations informed experts.

At 1:58 AM, two Pbar Debuncher power supplies (D:CWSP & D:CWRP) suffered a current drop. Operators believed that these were due to readback/controls problems. Both of these devices came through a Booster MADC that was replaced yesterday.

At 5:51 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

Operations resumed sending beam to MTest at 6:11 AM.

At 6:17 AM, the TeV sector F4 LCW pump #2 tripped off again. Operators reset it locally and turned on TEL1 & TEL2.

At 6:56 AM, a TeV RF station (TRF2) tripped off.

TeV experts began an end-of-store (EOS) study around 7 AM. D0 and CDF stopped taking data.

At 7:26 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

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

The Plans for Wednesday

The plans for today are to allow TeV experts to complete their EOS study. Shot setup for a new store will begin sometime between 11 AM and noon.

Accelerator Update Archive

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