Accelerator Update for May 12, 2008 - May 14, 2008

Monday May12

The day shift began with Operations monitoring Tevatron (TeV) store 6133 (79.8E30) and the Recycler stash (0.6E10), with the Antiproton Source (Pbar) stacking (179.1E10), 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, SciBooNE / MiniBooNE (BNB), and the Meson MTest experiments taking beam.

At 8:35 AM, a Linac RF stations (LRF3) tripped off. It reset.

At 9:46 AM, a Linac Klystron RF station (KRF3) tripped off. It reset.

MI experts worked on restoring the correct time bumps for the MI collimators at 9:48 AM.

At 10:01 AM, a Pbar expert reported that the Pbar Debuncher RF stations (DRF1-5) were all drifting low. He said he was replacing their power supply.

At 10:37 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:52 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

Operations terminated store 6133 at 1:04 PM.

A vacuum expert reported at 1:15 PM that he had changed the power supply cables for the TeV vacuum pumps at sector A1.

Operations turned on the TeV sector A3 LCW pump at 1:18 PM.

Operations halted Linac beam for about 40 minutes, at 1:20 PM, while Linac experts conducted tests on Klystron RF stations 3, 4, & 7.

At 2:05 PM, Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze.

A controls expert rebooted two MI front ends (FE) at 2:43 PM.

At 2:45 PM, KRF3 & 4 tripped off. They reset.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:47 PM.

At 3:51 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

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

At 5:23 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established store 6135 at 5:47 PM with an initial luminosity of 250.2E30.

At 6:35 PM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:45 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 9:06 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:02 PM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

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

Tuesday May 13

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6135 (108.83E30) and the stash (177.4E10), with Pbar stacking (16.8E10), and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

At 1:02 AM, BRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:18 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:34 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 2:55 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 4:52 AM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:32 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF17) tripped off and caused BRF7 & 8 to trip off. Everything reset.

At 6:05 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF23) tripped off and caused BRF13 & 14 to trip off. Everything reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 6:22 AM.

At 7:01 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 7:03 AM, a Pbar kicker (PBKICK) stopped responding and its controls would not reboot remotely. Operators reset the kicker locally.

Operations reported at 7:52 AM that the Recycler had stashed seven times during the midnight shift.

Operations terminated store 6135 at 8:14 AM.

Vacuum technicians reported at 8:17 AM that they were replacing the power supply for a TeV vacuum pump (BAIP7B).

At 8:24 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:33 AM, KRF4 & 6 tripped off. They both reset.

At 9:21 AM, KRF1 tripped off. It reset.

At 9:40 AM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 9:48 AM that the Duty Electricians were checking floats for the TeV sector D pond pit sumps.

Linac experts reported at 9:57 AM that they were replacing the Ignitron for KRF7. This work will hold off beam. Operations put Pbar into standby.

Operations placed an energy conservation time line into the Time Line Generator at 10:29 AM.

Linac experts reported at 11:27 AM that they had completed their work on KRF7.

Operations established beam to Pbar, NuMI, and BNB at 11:35 AM.

A MI expert began a study period at 11:37 AM. She completed her study about 30 minutes later.

A MI expert began working with the MI collimators at 12:10 PM.

At 3:10 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations put the TeV through a wet squeeze at 3:15 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:56 PM. The MTest experiment turned off for the day.

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

At 4:22 PM, the TeV aborted due to the B0 BLMs. Operations rebooted the BLMs.

A Recycler expert reported at 4:25 PM that he had finished his study.

A power supply expert reported at 4:36 PM that he had completed his repair on a Meson power supply (F:MT4WL).

Booster studies ended at 4:48 PM.

At 5:07 PM, Operations reported that a TeV kicker (C:AAK1) had tripped off on a “Pre-Fire/Fail to Fire” indication while trying to abort the TeV beam during shot setup. Operators reset the abort and cycled the kicker with and without beam and it operated normally. Operations contacted experts who advised to continue with shot setup.

At 5:37 PM, a TeV sector B4 electrical room air conditioner tripped off and would not turn on. Operations contacted the Duty Electrician who later installed a portable air conditioner.

A MI expert reported at 5:53 PM that MI was using a new horizontal orbit through the MI-8 collimator region.

At 5:55 PM, KRF2 & 3 tripped off. They both reset.

Operations established store 6138 at 6:33 PM with an initial luminosity of 266.1E30.

At 8:26 PM, Operations reported that lightning had caused various trips in Booster. Everything reset.

At 8:48 PM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:54 PM, Operations reported that the MI-8 beam permit was tripping off due to bad beam positions around the MI-8 collimators. Operators reduced the intensity and then slowly raised the intensity back up.

At 10:40 PM, KRF4 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:37 PM, KRF3 tripped off. It reset.

At 11:45 PM, the MI-8 beam permit starting tripping off again. Operations lowered intensity and then brought it back up.

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

Wednesday May14

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6138 (122.46E30) and the stash (202.1E10), with Pbar stacking (30.0E10), and with NuMI and BNB taking beam.

At 12:54 AM, a Linac Klystron vernier XFMR tripped for the first of two times in 40 minutes on a LCW flow fault. It reset.

At 1:52 AM, KRF2 tripped off. It reset.

At 5:09 AM, KRF6 tripped off for the first or two times in about 30 minutes. It reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 6:27 AM.

At 7:01 AM, Operations reported that something had changed after establishing beam to MTest. Beam to the Pbar target dropped and the stack rate dropped. Operators found that the MI BPM display times had been changed during the Switchyard slow extraction aggregate. Operators disabled the file that made the change and retuned the MI orbits.

At 7:55 AM, KRF7 tripped off. It reset.

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

The Plans for Wednesday

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.