Accelerator Update for September 19, 2008 - September 22, 2008

Friday Sept 19

The day shift began with Operations monitoring the Tevatron (TeV) store 6427 (201.83E30) and the Recycler stash (61.2E10), with the Antiproton Source (Pbar) stacking (43.1E10), with the Linac, Booster, and the Main Injector (MI) operating normally, with the MiniBooNE, NuMI, and the Meson MTest experiments taking beam, and with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and DZero (D0) using the colliding beams.

A controls expert reported at 8:41 AM that he found a failed card in CAMAC crate #11. He replaced the card and reset the crate.

At 8:49 AM, an RF expert reported that two fan-coil units had failed in the MI-60 control room. The temperature was rising. Operations contacted the Duty Mechanic.

An RF expert reported at 8:52 AM that he brought a MI RF station (MIRF15) back online.

At 12:51 PM, a Pbar kicker (PBKICK) power supply rebooted itself and caused the Sweeper magnet power supply to trip off. Everything reset.

At 3:07 PM, Operations reported that several Booster vacuum valves closed and then opened on their own. Experts investigated.

A MI expert reported at 3:16 PM that she was going to check coalescing and then conduct a 12- batch slipstacking study.

Operations reported at 4:10 PM that the Recycler had stashed antiprotons five times during the day shift.

Operations disabled the MTest beam around 6:25 PM.

Operations terminated store 6427 at 10:32 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 10:42 PM.

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

Saturday Sept 20

The midnight shift began with the TeV in shot setup, with Operations monitoring the stash (16.6E10), with the Pbar stacking (69.6E10), and with the MiniBooNE and NuMI experiments taking beam.

Operations established store 6428 at 12:33 AM with an initial luminosity of 276.2E30.

At 3:26 AM, a Linac Klystron RF station tripped off. It reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 4:17 AM.

At 4:28 AM, Operations reported a TeV sector F0 vacuum burst. Vacuum pumps reset. Unfortunately, luminosity took a hit because of the burst.

Operations reported at 5:12 AM that the TeV sector F0 vacuum was recovering, but the vacuum problem cascaded to the A1 transfer line and took down the MI beam permit.

Operations reported at 5:38 AM that MI resumed sending beam to Pbar, NuMI, and MTest.

Operations reported at 7:59 AM that the Recycler had stashed five times during the midnight shift.

Operations reset a Booster vacuum pump (IP62) at 8:17 AM.

Operations reported at 8:53 AM that a Pbar expert was investigating Pbar production problems. Later, he reported that the problem was tracked to a SWIC and a SEM program that were slowing down the target rotation readbacks.

At 9:46 AM, the TeV suffered a quench at TeV sector F3. Store 6428 was lost. Experts investigated and later reported that the quench was due to a bad power supply for the F3 IO crate.

Operations prepared D0 for an access at 11:13 AM.

At 11:53 AM, Operations reported that they had received a temperature too cold alarm for the NuMI Horn #1. Later, an expert reported that it was due to a bad sensor.

D0 came out of access at 1:23 PM.

At 1:50 PM, KRF6 tripped off for the first of two times in 36 minutes. It reset.

At 2:30 PM, Operations reported that a TeV sector DA HFU had failed its firing test. Operators replaced the HFU power supply, but the new HFU would not discharge. Operations contacted experts.

A controls expert found a bad parameter for the DA HFU. At 4:09 PM, she had an operator reset the clocks and scalers and the HFU fired and recharged correctly.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 5:49 PM.

Operations disabled the MTest beam at 6:04 PM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 7:15 PM.

Operations reported at 8:06 PM that the Recycler had stashed five times during the last 12 hours.

Operations established store 6431 at 9:01 PM with an initial luminosity of 288.74E30.

At 11:53 PM, KRF5 tripped off. It reset.

Sunday Sept 21

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6431 and the stash, with Pbar stacking, and with the MiniBooNE and NuMI experiments taking beam.

At 4:43 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF23) tripped off and caused BRF13 and 14 to also trip. Everything reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 4:59 AM.

At 5:54 AM, BRF8 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 7:52 AM that the Recycler had stashed eight times during the last 12 hours.

At 8:32 AM, LRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations terminated store 6431 at 10:26 AM.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 10:37 AM.

Operations established store 6432 at 12:15 PM with an initial luminosity of 292.12E30.

Operations disabled the MTest beam at 6:11 PM. Operations also reported a power supply (F:MT4WL) that would not turn on for one of the MTest run modes. Operations discussed the problem with experts.

At 7:29 PM, the Linac buncher tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 7:56 PM that the Recycler had stashed seven times during the last 12 hours.

At 8:25 PM, KRF5 tripped off. It reset.

At 8:43 PM, a cryo system expert at CHL reported that the TeV sector E0 cold compressor was running hot. He said that if it tripped, it would not be a problem, but they would need to repair it as soon as possible.

Monday Sept 22

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6432 and the stash, with Pbar stacking, and with the MiniBooNE and NuMI experiments taking beam.

At 1:32 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF17) tripped off and caused BRF7 and 8 to trip off. Everything reset.

At 3:33 AM, LRF4 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established beam to MTest at 4:27 AM.

Operations terminated store 6432 at 5:33 AM.

At 5:51 AM, several Booster beam valves closed and caused GMPS, ORBUMP, and the Booster chopper to trip off. Everything reset and turned on okay.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 7:36 AM.

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

The Plans for Monday

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

Accelerator Update Archive

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