Accelerator Update for October 13, 2008 - October 15, 2008

Monday Oct 13

The day shift began with Operations monitoring the Tevatron (TeV) store 6487 (59.96E30) and the Recycler stash (34.6E10), with the Antiproton Source (Pbar) stacking (120.6E10), with the Linac, Booster, and the Main Injector (MI) operating normally, with the MiniBooNE and NuMI experiments taking beam, and with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) and D-Zero (D0) using the colliding beams.

At 8:24 AM, the Linac Klystron Vernier tripped off on a water flow fault. It reset.

At 8:43 AM, a Linac RF station (LRF4) tripped off. It reset.

At 10:11 AM, a Booster RF station (BRF7) tripped off. It reset

At 10:35 AM, a Booster vacuum pump (IPRF17) tripped off and caused BRF7 & 8 to also trip off. Everything reset.

At 11:11 AM, LRF1 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 1:03 PM that the Linac would be down while experts worked on two Klystron RF stations (KRF5 and KRF6) and the Klystron Vernier.

Operations reported at 1:09 PM the Electron Cooling (ECool) was working well enough to cool the antiprotons in the Recycler.

Pbar experts began a study period at 1:34 PM.

At 1:39 PM, an Accumulator kicker (A:IKIK) tripped off and would not reset. An expert investigated and reported that its high voltage power supply had failed. He began work on its replacement.

Operations terminated store 6487 at 2:14 PM.

At 2:17 PM, Operations reported that a Linac correction magnet power supply (L:TRIM90) had failed. Operations contacted a Linac expert to change it out.

A Pbar expert reported 3 PM that A:IKIK was repaired.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 3:16 PM.

Operations established beam to the Accumulator at 3:30 PM.

Operations reported at 4:02 PM that the Recycler had stashed antiprotons once during the day shift.

At 4:24 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established store 6488 at 4:40 PM with an initial luminosity of 148.35E30.

At 8:38 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 10:04 PM, a NuMI kicker (I:KPS4A) tripped off on a ‘Prefire/Fail to fire’ indication. It reset.

At 10:32 PM, a NuMI kicker (I:KPS6A) tripped off on a ‘Prefire/Fail to fire’ indication for the first of two times in about an hour. Operations contacted an expert after the second trip.

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

Tuesday Oct 14

The midnight shift began with Operations monitoring store 6488 (63.86E30) and the stash (178.3E10), with Pbar stacking (18.4E10), and with the MiniBooNE and NuMI experiments taking beam.

At 12:24 AM, a NuMI kicker (I:KPS6A) tripped off on a ‘Prefire/Fail to fire’ indication for the first of four times in about five hours. After talking with an expert, operators began turning the reservoir voltage down by one-tenth of a volt.

At 4:58 AM, the H- Source computer control would increase the Source’s reference voltage from 0 to 800 and then start over at 0. Operators put the control to local and set it to 745.

At 5:01 AM, the Booster Notcher came into alarm. Operators investigated and found a bad cable. An expert came in to reterminate the cable.

At 5:34 AM, LRF3 tripped off. It reset.

A Booster expert reported at 6:11 AM that he had reterminated the Notcher cable.

Operations terminated store 6488 at 7:09 AM.

At 7:17 AM, BRF11 tripped off. It reset.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup.

At 7:27 AM, BRF11 tripped off for the first of two times in six minutes. It would not stay on after the second trip. Operators bypassed the station and brought up BRF19 in its place.

Operations reported at 8:03 AM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the midnight shift.

At 8:10 AM, the NuMI beam permit tripped off for the first of two times due to a kicker problem. It reset.

Operations established store 6489 at 9:02 AM with an initial luminosity of 264.9E30.

An RF expert reported at 9:09 AM that he brought BRF11 back online. Operators turned off BRF19.

At 9:46 AM, LRF3 tripped off. It reset.

Pbar experts reported at 11:12 AM that they were beginning work on a kicker (A:IKIK), a quadrupole power supply (A:QDF), and they were accessing the target vault.

At 11:44 AM, Operations reported that I:KPS6N was tripping off repeatedly, so it was turned off.

A Pelletron expert began an ECool measurement study at 11:48 AM.

A Pbar expert reported at 11:57 AM that all of the Pbar work was completed.

The Neutron Therapy Facility reported at 11:59 AM that they had finished treating their last patient for the day.

Pbar resumed stacking at 12:12 PM.

Operations prepared NuMI for an access at 1:48 PM. A kicker expert began work on I:KPS6N.

The Pelletron ECool studies ended at 1:51 PM.

At 2:41 PM, BRF14 tripped off. It reset.

FESS electricians reported at 2:52 PM that they were working on air handling units at MI-20.

At 3:05 PM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

Operations reported at 4:01 PM that the Recycler had stashed four times during the day shift.

At 5:16 PM, BRF8 tripped off. It reset.

At 6:39 PM, a NuMI kicker expert reported that KPS6N was still not operating.

Operations terminated store 6489 at 8:40 PM.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 8:51 PM.

Operations prepared D0 and CDF for access at 8:56 PM.

At 10:21 PM, Operations reported that the TeV sector F1 BPM VME was not responding, so they rebooted it.

D0 came out of access at 10:35 PM.

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

Wednesday Oct 15

The midnight shift began with CDF in access, with Operations monitoring the stash (313.5E10), with Pbar stacking (28.2E10), with MiniBooNE taking beam, and with NuMI off due to a kicker problem.

Operations put the TeV through a dry squeeze at 12:25 AM.

At 12:27 AM, a Booster kicker (MP03) tripped off for the first of two times in about an hour. It reset.

At 12:33 AM, MIRF1 tripped off. It reset.

At 12:39 AM, Operations reported that they were still having problems with the H- Source regulation.

Operations reported that the NuMI kicker repairs were completed at 1:28 AM. Operations resumed sending beam to NuMI. Later, experts reported that they had replaced three bad capacitors, but they thought the main problem was that the thyratron tube was getting old and needed to be replaced.

Operations put the TeV into shot setup at 2:04 AM.

At 3:10 AM, KRF6 tripped off. It reset.

At 3:24 AM, BRF5 tripped off. It reset.

Operations established store 6492 at 3:58 AM with an initial luminosity of 213.46E30.

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 stack, stash, and store.

Accelerator Update Archive

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