Beam Delivery Report: Difference between revisions

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A daily (more or less) report on beam delivery at TRIUMF, and part of the Beam Delivery group's [[TRIUMF:_Guide_for_experimenters|Guide for Experimenters]].
Status reports on beam delivery at TRIUMF, and part of the Beam Delivery group's [[TRIUMF:_Guide_for_experimenters|Guide for Experimenters]].


=23:35, 26 September 2009 (PDT) — WEEKEND UPDATE=
Past reports can be found [[Beam_Delivery_Report_Archive|here]].
Beam was injected into the cyclotron around 19:00 last night.  BL2A is offline (and will be for another three weeks or so), but the cyclotron is now running with protons in BL1A and BL2C.  The plan for tonight is to bring the currents in those beamlines up to 100 and 50 µA, respectively.  In other words, we're coming out of shutdown and getting ready to start beam delivery for real next week, as scheduled.


We'll test BL4A with low currents Monday or Tuesday for this fall's ATLAS detector tests. This will allow Proton Hall roof beams to be removed on Wednesday to allow clean-up work to continue. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Permalinks:
[https://www.triumf.info/facility/internal/operations/cystatus.php Cyclotron status]
[https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ Cyclotron log]
[https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/ ISAC log]


=13:54, 24 September 2009 (PDT)=
=18:45, 24 August 2010 (PDT)=
We've run into a couple of problems at ISAC that will delay the startup of ISAC by about three weeks. This should have no effect on the cyclotron or BL1A/2C startup next week.
'''SERVICE UPDATE:''' Because the wiki framework doesn't lend itself well to blog-like periodic entries, this page is being deprecated. In its place will be a [https://documents.triumf.ca/docushare/dsweb/View/Weblog-182 Beam Delivery Updates] weblog on TRIUMF's documents server. Past entries will be maintained here, but future entries will be posted there on an as-needed basis. The main page will be updated to direct readers to the new location. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


First off, there's a leak into the secondary vacuum volume on the west target station (ITW). The leak is in the second exit module, under the service cap, and requires removing the exit module to the hot cell in order to replace an o-ring that is not easily accessed. We actually sealed the leak temporarily in the hope of running through the first target of Schedule 116 (HP ZrC in ITW) and effecting a repair during the second target run (HP Nb in ITE), but we've decided to go ahead and fix it now while we resolve a bigger issue that was discovered last Friday:  a leak through the BL2A entrance window into ITW.  This is going to require removing the target and entrance modules to provide access to the window, and fabricating and installing a replacement.  The net result is that the first target run has been scrubbed. ISAC beam production is now scheduled to start October 21 (or as soon as possible once repairs are completed).  — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=17:41, 23 August 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is running well. After a brief interruption this morning to investigate a leak in the copper active water system, the cyclotron has continued to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~75 µA to BL2C4. There are a number of interruptions to different beamlines planned over the next few days. There will be maintenance at ISAC tomorrow (BL1A will remain online), a brief period of cyclotron development Wednesday (as high-current operation with BL1A ends for Schedule 117), a change of the 1A extraction foil cartridge Thursday in preparation for low-current operation with BL1A/B, and patient treatment over the weekend.


=11:54, 15 September 2009 (PDT)=
At ISAC, TUDA experiment S1233 has been cancelled due to a failure of the Phase 1 (cryogenics) compressor. We'll try to start the b-NMR experiments originally scheduled for Friday a few shifts early and use a shift in the interim for TRILIS development. The online schedule has been updated to reflect these changes. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Mini-shutdown has begun.  The maintenance schedule is available [http://trshare.triumf.ca/~acceldiv/Maintenance/Maintenance.htm here], but you'll need a password.  If you can access trshare, you should be able to read it.  In short, the cyclotron will be off until the middle of next week. The RF and main magnet are scheduled to be restarted on September 23, with injection planned for September 26.  Beam production on BL2A and BL1A is scheduled to resume September 29 and 30, respectively.


For the next couple of weeks, we'll post updates if the shutdown schedule changes.  Regular posting will resume September 29. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=22:07, 13 August 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
Everything is running relatively well. The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~77 µA to BL2C4. This is expected to continue through the weekend.


=19:44, 11 September 2009 (PDT) — WEEKEND UPDATE=
At ISAC, <sup>30</sup>Na is being delivered to the Osaka experiment and data-taking is underway. Polarization was successfully established earlier in the week. That experiment will continue until next Wednesday's scheduled maintenance day. At ISAC-II, SCC commissioning is underway using stable beam from OLIS. That will also continue next week. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
BL2A is currently the sole user of the cyclotron, taking 70 µA for RIB production at ISAC. PIF is finished and BL1A has been offline since last week. We'll continue to run at 70 µA until Sunday evening, then reduce the current to 40 µA as we head into the two-week mini-shutdown starting next week.


At ISAC, TITAN is currently taking <sup>46</sup>K with plans to take several potassium isotopes over the weekend. Other than for end-of-target scans etc., they'll take beam until we shut the cyclotron down on Tuesday. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=22:42, 10 August 2010 (PDT)=
After a relatively uneventful weekend, the cyclotron is delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~75 µA to BL2C4. This will continue overnight. Maintenance is scheduled for tomorrow; beam is expected to be unavailable from 09:00 until 13:00 or so. Please note that the cyclotron will remain on for the first couple of hours as the current machine tune is documented; this is follow-up work from last week's development shift.


=18:05, 10 September 2009 (PDT)=
<sup>30</sup>Na has been delivered to the Osaka experiment at ISAC, but has proven difficult to polarize. They're now taking <sup>26</sup>Na to try to establish polarization before switching back. That experiment will continue into next week. In addition, OLIS is being used in support of SCC commissioning. This will also continue through the week. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
We're on the home stretch of Schedule 115.  Right now, BL2A is taking 70 µA while PIF runs on BL2C1. This will continue (with PIF running off and on) for the next few days. It's been tentatively decided to stay at 70&nbsp;µA until Sunday evening, then reduce the current to 40 µA for the last 36 hours before we begin the mini-shutdown on Tuesday.


At ISAC, CSB development has been put off &mdash; a steerer upstream of the PHENIX ECR charge breeder won't hold voltage, meaning we can't get RIB into the CSB.  We're setting up to deliver beam to TITAN instead; if all goes well, they should get beam this evening rather than midday tomorrow. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=17:15, 4 August 2010 (PDT)=
Beam development will continue into the night, with maintenance (including an ISIS backplate change) planned for tomorrow. The full maintenance list is [http://trshare.triumf.ca/~acceldiv/Maintenance/Maintenance.htm here]. At this time, beam is expected late Thursday evening.


=14:40, 9 September 2009 (PDT)=
Stable-beam tuning from the new low-power Ta target in ITW is underway. The high-power ZrC target used for development over the past four weeks has reached end-of-life and will be disconnected and removed over the next two weeks. Protons are expected on the new target following maintenance, with delivery to experiment (<sup>30</sup>Na for Osaka experiment S1114) planned for this weekend. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron's been defined off for maintenance, even though there was very little required on the cyclotron side. The bigger issue is that time was needed in the ISAC Target Hall, meaning that BL2A's unavailable for the day. With BL1A already offline for the September mini-shutdown, that leaves us with nowhere to dump the proton beam.  We'll get things running again this afternoon.


Work is underway to disconnect TM1 and set up a leak detector to look at the west target station at ISAC. Once that's complete, we'll switch the beam to the yield station and begin preparing for CSB development.  We will run at high proton currents this evening (at least) to determine the yields of potassium isotopes for CSB development and the upcoming TITAN experiments. A final decision as to how much proton current we'll run with over the weekend (and into the mini-shutdown) will be made tomorrow. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=17:37, 30 July 2010 (PDT)—(LONG) WEEKEND UPDATE=
BL1A is getting a little bit more beam than yesterday (~130 µA) while BL2A remains at 75 µA. Beam is still being delivered to BL2C1 for PIF (at the nA level); this is scheduled to continue overnight with isotope production on BL2C4 resuming afterwards. We expect to run ~125/75/75 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4 over the rest of the weekend.


=15:47, 8 September 2009 (PDT)=
Yield measurements and source development are continuing at ISAC. Protons will be required off for several hours tomorrow (Saturday) to accommodate the move of TM1 to ITW; this was originally planned for last Thursday, but a leak in a cooling line delayed it. Development work will continue over the weekend, with an attempt to accelerate a charge-bred beam to SEBT3A/TIGRESS planned for Tuesday. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
BL2A continues to be the sole user of the cyclotron, taking 50 µA of proton beam. PIF will start up again later in the week on BL2C1.  There's no real cyclotron maintenance scheduled for tomorrow, but BL2A will be unavailable for a few hours (see below) so there won't be much going on.


At ISAC, we've been delivering <sup>8</sup>Li to β-NMR/NQR (mostly NQR) over the weekend.  Startup Friday night was delayed due to problems with the polarizer, but the experiment has been running ever since.  They'll run until tomorrow morning, at which point we'll have a 6&ndash;8 hour maintenance for Target Hall work prior to next week's mini-shutdown. We'll jump into yield measurements and charge-state booster development after that. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=18:06, 29 July 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and tens of nA (off and on) to BL2C1 for PIF. This should continue overnight.


=11:38, 4 September 2009 (PDT)=
At ISAC, target/source/CSB development is continuing. A decision as to whether or not we'll try to accelerate a charge-bred beam over the weekend will be made tomorrow. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Protons were restored this morning and we're currently delivering 60 µA to BL2A.  This may be increased to 70 µA as the day goes on, but that will depend on ISAC.  BL1B will be used for PIF over the weekend.


After a day of pumping and HV conditioning (without protons on target), the ISAC production target and source seem much more stable than they were two nights ago.  We're setting up to deliver <sup>8</sup>Li to β-NMR/NQR later today. That will run until next Wednesday's maintenance. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=17:47, 27 July 2010 (PDT)=
Beam was restored overnight, then stopped again due to RF problems, then restored again this morning, before BL2A had to be taken offline due to problems with the 2AQ15 power supply. That all seems to be sorted out now and the cyclotron is delivering ~120 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and tens of nA to BL2C1. This should continue overnight, with periodic accesses to 2C1 for PIF.


=15:44, 3 September 2009 (PDT)=
At ISAC, <sup>4</sup>He is being tuned to TIGRESS for calibration purposes. This is being held up due to a problem getting the Prague magnet (used to determine the beam energy from the DTL) power supply to come on. Experts are being contacted. On the RIB side, CSB development and yield measurements are underway in preparation for a production test and delivery to TIGRESS later this week. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Maintenance day is well underway. The BL1 extraction foil has been changed to allow 1B operation for the next few days, but ISIS work is continuing.  Protons aren't expected before (early?) Friday morning.


At ISAC, setup to β-NMR/NQR is currently on hold until the proton beam is restored. The target HV &mdash; bias, extraction electrode, and Einzel lens &mdash; have been increased with the protons off in order to further condition the target and (hopefully) reduce the spark rate once the beam is restored. They'll be reduced to their operating values when the beam comes back in order to proceed with stable beam tuning and setup.  The plan is to deliver <sup>8</sup>Li to the experiment(s) by tomorrow evening. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=18:55, 26 July 2010 (PDT)=
Back from vacation. Things were running well until about 16:00, at which point a power bump knocked a bunch of things offline. Injection is expected around midnight, with proton delivery some time after that. The plan is to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and ~0.1 µA to BL2C1 for PIF. We'll see how things look tomorrow morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:49, 30 August 2009 (PDT) &mdash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=23:06, 30 June 2010 (PDT)=
BL1A is taking ~105 µA and BL2A 40.  BL2C1 is set up for patient treatment. This will be the last week of BL1A running before the September shutdown. BL2A and 2C will continue until mid-month.
The cyclotron is currently delivering beam to BL1A and 2C4 (~115 µA and ~75 µA, respectively), but BL2A is off for the foreseeable future. Efforts to deliver RIB from the current target have been abandoned and investigations into the HV problems that have plagued us are underway. The scheduled experimenters will try to run with stable beam from OLIS instead.


ISAC is squeezing <sup>9</sup>Li out of the SiC target we've been running for the last five weeks or so for an experiment at TUDA-II. This should wrap up with the start of PT tomorrow morning, at which point we'll begin moving the shielding blocks from ITW to ITE.  TM4 is being HV conditioned; heating will follow. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
This will be the last update for a while as I will be on vacation until July 26. As always, check the cyclotron and ISAC logs and the cyclotron status page (see above) for up-to-date information. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:43, 26 August 2009 (PDT)=
=22:58, 26 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
We're currently delivering beam to BL1A, BL2A, and BL2C4, though the RF has been a bit unsettled all day.  BL1A is currently getting ~100 µA, BL2C4 ~65, and BL2A 35. This will continue overnight, then BL2A will stand down for 6&ndash;8 hours for Target Hall work while we switch from BL2C4 to BL2C1.
The current has been reduced in BL2A, but the cyclotron is still delivering beam to all three high-current beamlines: ~115 µA to BL1A, ~75 µA to BL2C4, and 40 µA to BL2A. We're not sure about BL2A, but the other currents are expected to remain at roughly those values until Monday.


At ISAC, TM4 is in the east target station and pumping down.  We'll continue to deliver <sup>9</sup>Li to β-NQR overnight, then switch to TUDA-II following the Target Hall work. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
We've had good news and bad news at ISAC. The good news? Despite our misgivings, we were able to reach 49 kV with the target bias overnight Friday, allowing us to start work towards delivering <sup>24</sup>Na without the CSB. The bad news? It didn't hold—the target began sparking early afternoon, and we've been trying to restore the bias voltage ever since. Ops will continue to do so overnight, but we may end up having to attempt delivery with the CSB after all. Again, we'll know more in the morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:48, 25 August 2009 (PDT)=
=18:48, 25 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
Maintenance day is coming to an end.  ISIS is ready to go, but there's now an issue with the RF booster; experts have been contacted.  The plan is to restore protons to BL1A, BL2A, and BL2C4 overnight.  1A will take beam for the next week, 2C4 for another day or so before we switch to patient treatment and PIF, and 2A off and on while we sort out TM4.
We're finally running beam to all three beamlines: ~105 µA to BL1A, ~75 µA to BL2C4, and 60 µA to BL2A. We expect to continue like this overnight, but may raise the current in BL2A to 70 µA over the weekend.


It does look like TM4 will be moved to ISAC's east target station tomorrow. In the meantime, we'll deliver <sup>9</sup>Li to β-NQR (depending on how the cyclotron behaves overnight). The experiment has made some progress despite taking RIB from a target (silicon carbide) that isn't optimal for Li production.  As a result, Science Division has agreed that they may continue to take beam beyond tomorrow morning. &mdash;[[User:Morton|Morton]]
We ended up abandoning the attempt to run ISAC at high bias voltages due to sparking. This cost us experiment S1204 and led us to attempt delivery of <sup>24</sup>Na to TIGRESS using the Charge State Booster. (With the CSB we can get to <sup>24</sup>Na<sup>5+</sup>, allowing us to achieve the required 2.04 keV/u needed for injection into the RFQ at a bias voltage of 9.79 kV.) Unfortunately this resulted in a <sup>24</sup>Na rate well below that required for the experiment. We're taking one last stab at running at high bias voltage now that the target has seen protons and had a few days to outgas, but if that doesn't work we'll attempt delivery with the CSB (as a development exercise, as much as anything). We'll know more in the morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=23:42, 24 August 2009 (PDT)=
=20:29, 21 June 2010 (PDT)=
We're currently delivering ~110 µA down BL1A, ~65 down BL2C4, and 35 down BL2A. This will continue overnight, but tomorrow's "maintenance if required" is not only required, it's going to be long:  the ISIS filament needs to be replaced again. As it was replaced last week, this wasn't expected. A full 12-hour maintenance is planned, starting at 08:30; it's not clear when beam will be restored to the various beamlines.
We're currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4. The 2C4 target was changed earlier today to meet a delivery deadline. There has been some progress in understanding last week's TNF protect monitor beam trips—a correlation has been identified with the 1AVQ2 current—so now it's a matter of identifying and implementing a solution. We'll continue to run at these currents overnight. Tomorrow is a maintenance day (scheduled for 24 hours, but expected to be ~10) to allow the replacement of the ISIS backplate.


At ISAC, <sup>8,9</sup>Li were delivered to β-NQR over the weekend. This is scheduled to continue until Wednesday morning, at which point we'll begin setting up <sup>9</sup>Li for TUDA at SEBT1. This was supposed to be another <sup>11</sup>Li experiment, but we won't have TM4 available in time. The bulk of the shutter repair has been completed, but it's still going to be Wednesday before we're able to move TM4 to the east target station. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
At ISAC, things are still going slowly. The shielding blocks over the west target station were removed to allow access to the top of the target module and evidence of sparking was found under the HV cover. Repairs have been made and Ops is attempting, once again, to raise the target bias voltage to above 50 kV. Protons will not be put on target overnight. A decision regarding the beam schedule beyond tomorrow's scheduled maintenance still has to be made. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:49, 21 August 2009 (PDT) &mdash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=22:57, 19 June 2010 (PDT)=
Right now:  ~115 µA down BL1A, ~60 µA down BL2C4, and 35 µA down BL2A. Things should continue like this through the weekend.
The cyclotron is running relatively well, but ISAC remains offline as the target will not yet hold the 53.04 kV needed for 26Al delivery. Conditioning will continue overnight. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


Things are still messed up at ISAC, but we're setting up to deliver Li isotopes to β-NMR/NQR over the weekend.  Unfortunately, <sup>11</sup>Li won't be one of the isotopes delivered as we're still running on the SiC target we've been using for the last month. TM4 and its new high-power Ta target, which were supposed to be delivering RIB by now, are still in the ISAC hot cell; a problem with the shutter on the RIB extraction port of the module was discovered as it was about to be craned into the east target station this morning. It will be early next week before that is fixed, and likely mid-week before we're able to move the module. The experimenters affected by this have been informed.  &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=18:18, 18 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and a few nA to BL2C1 for PIF. Isotope production on BL2C4 (at ~75 µA or so) will resume once PIF is finished this evening. BL2A will remain offline overnight.


=17:24, 19 August 2009 (PDT)=
The target leak at ISAC has been repaired and HV and target heaters are being restored. Assuming all goes well overnight, the shielding over the target station will be put back in place tomorrow morning and protons put on target. It will take some time for the proton current to be ramped up to 70 µA. Yield measurements and TRILIS development will likely begin long before that, with the hope of delivering some beam to experiment (even if we're still ramping up) over the weekend. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron's been running since about lunch time, and is currently delivering ~100 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C4, and 5 µA to BL2A. The 2A current will likely be increased to 35 µA within the next few hours.  The machine should run like this for the next few days.


As for ISAC: We've restored <sup>25</sup>Na to TIGRESS.  They'll continue running until Friday morning, at which point we'll (hopefully) move TM4 back to the east target station. The electrical short that's kept us from getting TM4 running was identified and fixed in the hot cell, but it will take another day to get it buttoned back up. We'll have to interrupt delivery again on Saturday to finish the service connections. Now that we have a better idea of how things are going to play out over the next week or so, we'll get the beam schedule updated. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=16:15, 17 June 2010 (PDT)=
ISAC remains offline as a vacuum leak in the west target station is investigated. Beam will not be restored to BL2A before tomorrow. In the meantime the cyclotron is delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and a few nA to BL2C1. This is scheduled to continue until Saturday morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=15:32, 18 August 2009 (PDT)=
=17:59, 16 June 2010 (PDT)=
Maintenance day. The cyclotron RF is coming back on at 94 kV after some promising development work last night, while the ISIS backplate change is underway. That's expected to be completed tonight. The goal is to have beam restored by 10:00 tomorrow morning.
After suffering frequent TNF protect monitor trips over the weekend, the cyclotron has been relatively stable since Monday. It's currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and a few nA (off and on) to BL2C1 for PIF. After taking up to 25 µA over the last few days, ISAC is offline due to an apparent vacuum leak. That will be investigated further tomorrow after the fields in the module access area have decayed. The scheduled ISAC experiment will take stable beam from OLIS in the interim. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


At ISAC, we weren't able to reinstall TM4 today as planned. That likely won't happen until the end of the week.  In the meantime, we'll continue to deliver RIB from the current low-power SiC target.  As a result, the beam schedule through next week is still in flux.  Hopefully we'll know more tomorrow. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=15:31, 11 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4. There have been a number of beam trips due to instability in the position of the 1A beam at TNF; Ops and beam experts have been working to identify the source of the problem for most of the morning.


=14:10, 17 August 2009 (PDT)=
ISAC is still offline. The new production target is being conditioned; the hope is to get some beam (~10 µA) on target Sunday so that target scans and beam development can begin Tuesday. TIGRESS will continue to take beam from OLIS until Saturday morning at which point it, too, will be taken offline in preparation for the next experiment. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Cyclotron beam development is underway and will continue overnight.  Maintenance will start 07:30 tomorrow to accommodate a Q15 backflush.  Beam is expected back Wednesday morning, though it may be delayed beyond 08:30 depending on the need to access the lower vault for vacuum work.


ISAC will likely be off until Wednesday afternoon as TM4 is reconnected in ITE. The switchover from ITW to ITE will not happen before the weekend.  We'll continue to deliver RIB from the current target until then. The beam schedule will be updated accordingly. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=15:36, 8 June 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is running and is relatively stable, delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4. BL2A is off until the next ISAC target is ready for beam (likely this weekend). After a brief interruption this morning to access STF, during which the B20 tripped off (and was restored), we expect no interruptions over the next few days. There will be no maintenance period tomorrow.


=20:33, 11 August 2009 (PDT)=
At ISAC, <sup>15</sup>N is being set up to TIGRESS. They'll take beam until Saturday morning at which point we'll switch from the Supernanogan back to the microwave source for the next few experiments. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A, 5 µA to BL2A, and ~3 nA to BL2C1 for PIF. There is a brief (~30 minutes or so) interruption planned for maintenance tomorrow morning.  BL2A will be declared off for a bit longer (2&ndash;3 hours) to investigate a problem with the east target station extraction electrode.


TIGRESS experiment S1107 is (finally) running relatively smoothly. Problems with the SCRF over the weekend have been resolved &mdash; the main oscillator had to be replaced &mdash; and we are now able to deliver <sup>25</sup>Na reliably.  The yield measurements scheduled for next Sunday night have been cancelled, so this experiment will run through to 08:30 Monday morning and the start of cyclotron beam development.
=20:41, 7 June 2010 (PDT)=
The RF is being brought up. It's currently at 90 kV; once it's at 95 kV and stable, injection and cyclotron tuning will commence. Beam delivery may be possible some time overnight. Keep checking the cyclotron status page and log for more information. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


M15 experiment M1130 still has to submit a beam properties request in order to start tomorrow as scheduled.  Otherwise, everything seems to be in order. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=14:56, 7 June 2010 (PDT)=
The B20 has been brought online more quickly than anticipated. There is a chance beam might be restored late this evening or early tomorrow morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=18:04, 6 August 2009 (PDT)=
=09:55, 7 June 2010 (PDT)=
Yesterday's 24-hour maintenance ran a bit long, but is finally over.  Right now, the cyclotron's delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C4, and 5 µA to BL2A. The 2A current will likely be increased overnight as we set up a new experiment at ISAC.
The Linde has still not been returned to operation. It's possible that the cryogenics group will switch back to the old B20 refrigerator to allow the cyclotron to run while the problem is addressed. That decision has not yet been made. More information should be available at this morning's 11:00 Ops/performance meeting (in the Auditorium).


Work on setting up that experiment (TIGRESS experiment S1107) is under way on two fronts.  Stable <sup>25</sup>Mg from OLIS is being tuned through the ISAC-II accelerator to the experiment as a pilot beam, while radioactive <sup>25</sup>Na is being developed online. Because some time will be needed to optimize the time spread of the beam at TIGRESS, we expect to switch from stable beam to RIB tomorrow.  This experiment will then run until August 16.
At ISAC a beam of <sup>15</sup>N<sup>4+</sup> from the Supernanogan offline source has been developed. Accelerator tuning (to TIGRESS) is planned for today. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


Please note that the site will be open to the public for TRIUMF's 40th Anniversary Open House on Saturday. The cyclotron will remain running, but beam delivery at ISAC will be suspended.  We'll take the time to do some target hall work in the hopes of keeping next Wednesday's scheduled maintenance to a minimum.  More details about the open house are available [http://www.triumf.ca/40years here]. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=23:26, 4 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The Linde has been shut down. The thinking is that there is still contamination in the system that can only be addressed at room temperature. Work to restore the refrigerator will resume tomorrow morning. There is no estimate as to when beam will be restored. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=22:27, 31 July 2009 (PDT) &mdash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=16:50, 4 June 2010 (PDT)=
Now that the temperature is starting to drop, things are starting to run a little more smoothly. BL1A is currently taking ~110 µA, BL2C4 ~60 µA, and BL2A ~5 µA. We expect to run with currents like these over the weekend.
The cryogenics experts are still working to get the Linde refrigerator running stably. Until they succeed, we have no idea when beam will be restored. Cyclotron Ops will continue to post updates [https://www.triumf.info/facility/internal/operations/cystatus.php here] and [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ here].


ISAC was offline for part of the day to accommodate a target module move (postponed from Thursday). Before that started, we lost a cavity in one of the superconducting cryomodules of the ISAC-II accelerator due to RF problems.  New accelerator tunes (using other cavities to achieve the desired beam energies) have been developed to provide RIB to TUDA over the weekend.  They'll continue to take <sup>21</sup>Na until the start of maintenance on Wednesday.
At ISAC, RIB delivery to β-NMR has been extended until Sunday morning. Stable-beam delivery to DRAGON is still scheduled to end tomorrow morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


Speaking of maintenance: This is a long weekend, so Ops will have less than a day to sort out this week's maintenance list. Have your jobs ready before Tuesday's 10:00 ops/delivery meeting. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=13:51, 4 June 2010 (PDT)=
The Linde 1630 helium refrigerator was restarted this morning and the cryopanels are cooling. We still don't have an estimate as to when beam might be injected into the cyclotron. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:48, 29 July 2009 (PDT)=
=17:38, 3 June 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~50 µA to Bl2C4, and 5 µA to BL2A, and we expect to keep running like this for the next few days. Cyclotron maintenance ran a bit longer than planned (see the log for details), but the machine was running shortly after 12:00. The big problem now?  The heat is playing havoc with ISIS, causing frequent trips with 20&ndash;30 minutes of downtime each time.
The Linde began to act up coming out of yesterday's maintenance. It was warmed up this morning and will be restarted tomorrow (Friday). No beam is expected before 18:00 Friday. For more information, check the [https://www.triumf.info/facility/internal/operations/cystatus.php cyclotron status] page or the [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ cyclotron] and [https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/ ISAC] logs. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


At ISAC, TUDA experiment S1103 is back taking beam. They'll do so overnight, then we'll have to shut BL2A down for four hours for a target module move.  Once that's complete, the experiment will run through the long weekend and to next week's maintenance day. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=14:49, 2 June 2010 (PDT)=
Maintenance is underway. Protons are expected to be restored early this evening, with delivery to experiments to follow.


=21:18, 28 July 2009 (PDT)=
The ISAC beam schedule has been updated.  See [http://mis.triumf.ca/schedule/view?schedule=117&revision=ACTIVE here] for more information. TM3 has been repaired and is currently being tested in the ISAC hot cell; it's expected to be moved back to ITW tomorrow. This will take 5–6 hours during which RIB will not be available. The exact time has yet to be determined. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Things are running, but the heat is still causing problems:  we've lost a few hours today due to ISIS problems, and we're having to run BL2C4 at a reduced current. Right now, we're delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~50 µA to BL2C4, and 5 µA to BL2A.  Network problems interfered with the running ISAC experiment this morning, but it's now running as smoothly as could be expected, given the temperature in the ISAC-II hall.


Maintenance starts tomorrow morning at 08:30.  There is only a two-hour interruption planned on the cyclotron side.  At ISAC, it will be more like eight as TM4 is disconnected and readied for transport to the hot cell later in the week. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=14:36, 1 June 2010 (PDT)=
Cyclotron development is underway.  The plan is to develop a tune with BL2A operating at 480 MeV and BL1A operating at 500 MeV and to run like that overnight.  The previous 480/480 MeV tune will be restored prior to tomorrow's maintenance.


=14:39, 26 July 2009 (PDT) &mdash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
An ISIS backplate change is planned for tomorrow's maintenance.  While maintenance is scheduled for 24 hours, beam is expected overnight Wednesday (barring last-minute demands for work).
Things are recovering from last night's thunderstorm(s), but the cyclotron is still not entirely stable.  Today's humidity seems to be causing problems with the ISIS 300 kV HVPS, while the heat is causing water temperature trips on BL2C.  As a result, 2C is offline while the cyclotron delivers ~115 µA to BL1A and 15 to BL2A.


At ISAC, TUDA-II got some <sup>21</sup>Na before all heck broke loose last night.  ISAC Ops is in the process of restoring the beam.  As part of the commissioning plan for the new ISAC-II current monitors, we are delivering beam at an energy higher than 5 MeV/nucleon; this is the first time we've been able to do so. &mdash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The ISAC schedule is about to be changed as the extraction electrode on the next target failed during high-voltage conditioning, forcing a trip back to the hot cell for repairs.  The current experiments will continue until Saturday morning. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=18:22, 30 June 2009 (PDT)=
=13:57, 25 May 2010 (PDT)=
BL1A is getting ~110 µA, BL2A 30, and BL2C4 70.  The hope is to increase the current to BL2A to 40 µA overnight, but that depends on how the target behaves.
It's been an unusual day in that BL2A is off for ISAC maintenance and BL2C4 was off for a target change while BL1A continued to take beam uninterrupted.  We're currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4; we'll resume delivering 40 µA to BL2A later this afternoon.  We expect to run like this through the week.


At ISAC, TACTIC ran successfully over the weekend.  An attempt has been made to tune to &beta;-NMR; unfortunately the target is sparking frequently, making tuning (not to mention the scheduled experiments) difficult.  The decision has been made to try conditioning it overnight at a higher bias voltage (40 kV) and to increase the proton current if the spark rate decreases.  The experimenters have been informed.  Tuning will (hopefully) resume tomorrow morning.
At ISAC, β-NMR will resume data-taking with <sup>8</sup>Li once protons are restored.  The off-line source is being set up to deliver <sup>33</sup>S from the Supernanogan to DRAGON later this week. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


I'll be out of town for the next three weeks, so updates may be less frequent.  As always, check the [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ MCR] and [https://isac-elog.triumf.ca ISAC] logs for more information.  &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=15:46, 18 May 2010 (PDT)=
Maintenance is well underway.  The cyclotron RF is back on and beam is expected to be restored some time this evening.  At ISAC, stable beam tuning (from the offline ion source) to TIGRESS is underway; online tuning to βNMR will begin once beam has been restored. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:52, 25 June 2009 (PDT)=
=16:12, 17 May 2010 (PDT)=
BL2C4 is getting ~75 µA (up from 70) and stable beam tuning to TACTIC is underway.  Otherwise, nothing has changed since yesterday.  Hopefully we'll have more to report on the ISAC side tomorrow. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron's currently delivering ~100 µA to BL1A, 70 µA to BL2A, and ~70 µA to BL2C.  This should continue until tomorrow's maintenance.  That will take most of the day as an ISIS backplate change is planned; however, proton delivery is expected overnight.


=23:10, 24 June 2009 (PDT)=
At ISAC, S1147 will wrap up with the start of tomorrow's maintenance.  TRILIS development and setup for the upcoming β-NMR experiment(s) will follow, likely at a reduced proton current.  The full proton current will be required once we deliver to the experiment on Thursday.  A 6–8 hour interruption will be required on Friday to accommodate a target module move. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Maintenance day is over, and beam has been restored to BL1A (~115 µA) and BL2C4 (~70 µA).  BL2A is still off-line.


At ISAC, TM4 is continuing to pump down.  Stable beam is being tuned to TACTIC to establish the accelerator tune for RIB over the weekend; they'll take the stable beam, at reduced currents, for instrument setup once tuning is complete tomorrow and until RIB is available. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=21:55, 14 May 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The T1 water leak has been repaired (and there are photos in the cyclotron log) and beam is being restored to BL1A.  The currents on BL2A and BL2C4 will be reduced while 1A is brought back online.  In the meantime we've been delivering 65 µA to BL2A and ~70 µA to BL2C4; the hope is to restore those and bring 1A back up to ~110 µA as quickly as possible.  Otherwise, no changes are expected through the weekend. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=22:31, 23 June 2009 (PDT)=
=13:36, 13 May 2010 (PDT)=
Cyclotron development has been underway since about 08:30 this morning.  That will continue into the wee hours, with some high-current BL1A operation being likely.  Maintenance &ndash; 24 hours, including an ISIS backplate change, though it may not take that long &ndash; starts 08:30 tomorrow.
BL1A is offline due to a water leak at the T1 target.  Shielding blocks are currently being removed to access T1.  The full course of action won't be known until the source of the leak is identified.  In addition, the beam profile monitor at T2 has failed; that monitor would be needed to deliver beam to T2, TNF, and the 500 MeV irradiation facility with T1 removed for repairs.  Once the blocks have been removed from above T1 work will begin to excavate T2.


At ISAC, TM4 is pumping down in the east target station.  Services will be connected over the next couple of days so that we can begin HV conditioning as the vacuum allows.  From past experience, it will take at least a couple of days to get to that point.  When we have a better idea of how the startup is going to proceed (and when we can expect protons on target), we'll let people know. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver 65 µA to BL2A and ~70 µA to BL2C4.  The ISAC schedule has been updated again: S1147 will run until 08:30 Tuesday and S1142 (<sup>146</sup>Tb at the 8π) has been cancelled.  β-NMR will run an extra week in its place. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=18:08, 22 June 2009 (PDT)=
=21:08, 12 May 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4.  BL2A is still off.  This will continue overnight.  Cyclotron development is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by 24 hours of maintenance starting 08:30 Wednesday.
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~105 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~70 µA to BL2C4.  We lost 42 minutes to an RF crowbar this morning, but otherwise things have been relatively stable.  We expect to continue running like this through the weekend.


At ISAC, TM4 was transported to the east target station this afternoon.  It will be roughed out with service connections, etc. to follow.  We don't expect it to be ready for beam 08:30 Thursday as scheduled; it will more likely be Friday evening or Saturday.  The experimenters scheduled to run over the weekend have been warned. In the meantime, TM3 will remain under vacuum in ITW for commissioning.  &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
<sup>11</sup>Li delivery to experiment S1147 continues at ISAC.  The schedule has been changed to allow them to run without interruption until Monday. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:25, 19 June 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=14:37, 11 May 2010 (PDT)=
BL1A is currently taking ~110 µA and BL2C4 ~75 µA.  This should continue through the weekend.
We lost time yesterday afternoon due to an unrelated problem with the Linde helium refrigerator—a fuse blew, causing it to trip off.  That was restored yesterday evening and we've been running relatively smoothly since.  The RF is still sparking occasionally, but the machine is gradually settling down.


ISAC will not take protons before maintenance day.  It's been decided to save the ZrC target mounted on TM3 that's supposed to be running right now for a development run in the fall, given this week's change to a HP Ta target in TM4.  Startup on ''that'' target may itself be delayed, however. The heat shield failed yesterday's leak check and was replaced today; as a result, we weren't able to transport TM4 to ITE as planned.  Hopefully that will happen Monday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
We're currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~65 µA to BL2C4.  We'd like the currents in BL1A and BL2C4 to be a bit higher, but the machine transmission is still not great (though it's much better than it was yesterday or over the weekend).  Tomorrow's maintenance has been cancelled outright (see the [http://mis.triumf.ca/schedule/view beam schedule] and [http://trshare.triumf.ca/~acceldiv/Maintenance/Maintenance.htm maintenance list]), so we expect to continue delivering high currents until next week.  The RIB experiment currently running at ISAC will continue until Monday morning as well, with TRILIS development to follow. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:38, 18 June 2009 (PDT)=
=10:49, 10 May 2010 (PDT)=
We lost the BL1A triplet booster pump at about 21:00 yesterday, so no beam could be delivered overnight.  A replacement was found (in Port Coquitlam) and installed by about 13:50 this afternoon, and beam was restored around 14:40.  Right now, the cyclotron is delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and ~50 µA to BL2C4 for isotope production (with a goal of ~70 µA or so).  ISAC is still not running, and likely will not take protons on the current target. It looks like we'll be running with BL1A and BL2C4 until next Tuesday's development shift. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
After all of last week's problems we were able to run relatively smoothly over the weekend.  The cyclotron is currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~65 µA to BL2C4.  Transmission through the machine is still poor, though, so some tuning work is likely required.


=16:24, 12 June 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
The current state of the machine and plans for the coming week will be discussed in some detail at the weekly Ops/performance meeting (11:00 in the Auditorium).  All are encouraged to attend. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
As has been the case all week, the cyclotron is delivering ~115 µA to BL1A while BL2C remains in PIF mode.  Isotope production on BL2C4 is scheduled to resume tomorrow.  BL2A is still offline.


At ISAC, TM3 was installed in the west target station today.  People will be in tomorrow to continue connecting services and establish vacuum.  TM4 will move from the east station to the hot cell on Monday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=22:59, 7 May 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The dee voltage is at 90 kV, the Linde motor frequency is still relatively stable—there's certainly no evidence of the fast oscillations we were seeing all week—and beam has been injected.  There are currently 30+ µA being extracted down BL1A, with BL2A and 2C4 to follow.  The transmission is still poor (not surprising, given that the machine has been off for most of the last six days) and the machine will likely need several hours to settle down, but it's a start.


=20:42, 11 June 2009 (PDT)=
Should the cryogenic system hold, the plan is to run high currents in all three beamlines over the weekend: BL1A is always run at >100 µA, while ISAC will want 65 µA in BL2A and BL2C4 will need 60–70 µA for isotope production.  It will likely take some time to bring the total extracted current to the 245 µA or so that we'd like.  In addition, there may be periods of reduced beam intensity to accommodate cyclotron tuning.  We appreciate how patient everyone has been through this, but we still need a few more days to get back to where we should be.
BL1A is continuing to run at ~115 µA while BL2C is in PIF mode.  We'll switch from BL2C1 to BL2C4 for isotope production on Saturday.  BL2A is still offline and will be through the weekend.


The experiments on M9, M15, and M20 were all able to take beam straight out of yesterday's maintenance.  No equipment changes are scheduled for next week.
Thanks. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


TM4 is ready to be removed from the east target station; however, it looks like TM3 is (finally) ready to be installed in the west.  At this point it looks as though that will happen tomorrow, with TM4 being moved at a later date (to be determined).  Either way, it will take several days to pump down TM3/ITW and ready it for protons.  By the end of next week, we should be taking protons on TM3 and have TM4 reinstalled, with a new target, in ITE. &nash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=18:07, 7 May 2010 (PDT)=
And here we go again: The RF dee voltage is at 70 kV and (so far) the Linde appears to be holding steady.  Ops has been asked not to increase the dee voltage faster than ~10 kV/hour, so it would still be ~20:00 or so before they'd be at 90 kV and some time after that before they'd be in a position to try injecting into the cyclotron.  The plan is to deliver beam if possible, though the current may be limited as the RF settles down. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=14:22, 9 June 2009 (PDT)=
=14:34, 7 May 2010 (PDT)=
BL1A is running at ~115 µA, BL2C1 is taking ~5 nA, and BL2A is offline.  There is a short maintenance planned for tomorrow morning (08:30—11:00), but otherwise things should continue like this until we resume isotope production on BL2C4 on Saturday.
Things are still a mess—last night's attempt to restore the RF failed as the Linde motor frequency became unstable (again).  An engineer from Linde is en route from Tulsa, Oklahoma; he'll be on site tomorrow morning to try to diagnose the problem.  In the meantime, we're going to keep trying to get things going.  Another attempt is being made to bring the RF online in the hopes that the cryogenics will remain stable, but even if this attempt is successful there is clearly a problem which will still have to be addressed. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


At ISAC, we're still trying to get TM3 buttoned up for a development run with a ZrC target.  At this point, it looks like the module won't move into the target station until the end of the week, meaning we won't get protons on target until next week at the earliest.  TM4 has been leak-checked and will move to the hot cell to have its target replaced within the next couple of days. – [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=19:42, 6 May 2010 (PDT)=
After defrosting overnight, the cyclotron cryogenics system was restarted this morning.  The tank vacuum is good and the system appears to be stable.  The RF was started about half an hour ago and the dee voltage is slowly being brought up to its operating value of 90 kV.  If things remain stable, injection and extraction down BL1A will follow, with extraction down BL2C4 and 2A after that. Again, check the cyclotron and ISAC logs for more information. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=23:05, 4 June 2009 (PDT)=
=15:03, 5 May 2010 (PDT)=
Sorry about the lack of updates; I've been absent due to illness.  Information about current ops, including the ISAC and MCR e-logs, can be found on TRIUMF's main site:<br>
Beam will be off until at least tomorrow morning as the cryopanel system is brought back to room temperature and then re-cooled.  We're taking the opportunity to perform unrelated maintenance, including the ISIS backplate change that was going to be necessary next week.  Hopefully we'll know more by tomorrow. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
[http://www.triumf.ca/research/operations-controls http://www.triumf.ca/research/operations-controls]<br>
&ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:51, 29 May 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=08:34, 5 May 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and 25 µA to BL2A.  BL2C is in PT mode &ndash; the first round was this morning, and it will continue through Monday.
And we're down again.  We had beam briefly overnight, but the same problems resurfaced around 3:00 this morning.  As usual, we have no idea how long it will take to resume beam—until the cryogenics and RF groups give the okay to restart the RF, we can't make any estimates


At ISAC, DRAGON is still taking <sup>17</sup>O from OLIS while the 8π takes <sup>19</sup>Ne from the online source.  As before, DRAGON is scheduled to run (with occasional energy changes) until Tuesday morning, while RIB delivery to the 8π wraps up Sunday at 08:30. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
If you have any maintenance jobs that might take a few hours but can be wrapped up in an hour if the word is given to restart the RF, today would probably be a good day to do them. Contact Ops if you need a work permit; they'll be able to advise. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:36, 28 May 2009 (PDT)=
=15:24, 4 May 2010 (PDT)=
As has been the case for the last couple of days, the cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A, ~70 µA to BL2C, and 20 µA to BL2A.  This will continue overnight and into the weekend. Four days of patient treatment (proton therapy) will start tomorrow at 08:30. As always, this will mean an interruption in beam delivery of a couple of hours each day.
Work on the Linde is continuing, but there's still no reliable estimate of how long it will be until the problem is under control.  Ops is posting updates on the [https://www.triumf.info/facility/internal/operations/cystatus.php Cyclotron Status] page; additional information may be found in the [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ Cyclotron] and [https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/Elog_copy_3_shifts.php ISAC] logs. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


DRAGON is continuing to take stable beam at ISAC, while the 8π continues to take RIB.  Both will continue into the weekend.  No changes (other than energy changes for DRAGON) are expected before Saturday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=08:14, 4 May 2010 (PDT)=
The good news?  We were able to deliver beam overnight.  The bad news?  The same issues we've been having with the Linde resurfaced overnight.  The RF has been off since ~07:00 this morning.  We don't know how long it will be until it's restored.


=20:25, 27 May 2009 (PDT)=
The vacuum and RF experts are working on the problem in consultation with outside experts.  Once the cryogenic system is stable, we expect a startup like yesterday's (i.e. a few hours from injection to full current in all beamlines). — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Maintenance day is over.  BL1A is getting ~115 µA, BL2C ~70, and BL2A 20. Things will continue like this until the weekend, when the BL2A current may increase for a shift or two before the target is shut down Sunday morning.


At ISAC, we're still delivering <sup>17</sup>O to DRAGON and <sup>19</sup>Ne to the 8π.  Other than energy changes for DRAGON, no changes are planned for the next couple of days. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=17:57, 3 May 2010 (PDT)=
As you may have noticed, the cyclotron is operating and beam has been restored.  We're currently delivering ~115 µA down BL1A and 65 µA down BL2A, though this may be reduced for periods overnight and through tomorrow to allow Ops to work on the cyclotron tune.  The Linde unit that supplies cold He gas to the cryopanels appears to be holding.


=20:49, 26 May 2009 (PDT)=
RIB tuning has resumed at ISAC.  The hope is to switch from tuning to delivery of <sup>11</sup>Li to experiment S1147 within the next few hours. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Right now, the cyclotron's delivering ~115 µA to BL1A, ~70 µA to BL2C (for isotope production), and 20 µA to BL2A.  The low current to ISAC is at the request of the experimenter. There is a short (~3 hour) maintenance period tomorrow, starting at 09:30.  The maintenance list is [http://trshare.triumf.ca/~acceldiv/Maintenance/Maintenance.htm here].


At ISAC, two experiments are running:  <sup>19</sup>Ne from the online source is going to the 8π for experiment S1192, while <sup>17</sup>O from the OLIS multi-charge source (i.e. the Supernanogan) is going to DRAGON for experiment S1216. This is not what was originally scheduled, but rather what was agreed upon last week in response to the observed <sup>18</sup>F rate (see Saturday's update).  RIB will be unavailable for maintenance for a full day tomorrow, starting at 08:30, while stable beam should continue uninterrupted.  S1192 will run until Sunday at 08:30, and S1216 will run until next Tuesday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=12:45, 3 May 2010 (PDT)=
While we were able to restore beam for a couple of days following last week's repair of the extraction probe, we have been unable to deliver beam since Saturday night due to problems with the cyclotron cryogenics system.  (Large cryogenically cooled panels are used to trap hydrogen and other trace gases as part of the cyclotron vacuum system; without reliable cryogenics, we don't have reliable vacuum.)  A final effort is being made, in consultation with outside experts, to bring the system into regulation in the hopes of restoring cyclotron RF this afternoon (with injection to follow some time after that), but at this point we still don't have a good estimate of how long it will be before beam delivery resumes. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=15:54, 23 May 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=20:55, 29 April 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron's currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A for Meson Hall operation and ~70 µA to BL2C for isotope production.  BL2A is off in order to fix a leak in a vacuum line to the operating storage tank.  We expect to resume BL2A operation with 60 µA on target later today.
The cyclotron is still offline following yesterday's failure of the BL1A extraction probe.  During a routine foil change the old extraction foil hung up on the probe mechanism; the cyclotron had to be vented for that foil to be removed before the probe could be withdrawn to its housing and repaired.  The tank is back under vacuum and the probe is currently being tested.  If all goes well, we expect proton beam delivery to resume tomorrow.


At ISAC, we're in the process of delivering the first beam to an experiment from the Supernanogan multi-charge-state ion source.  DRAGON is going to take <sup>17</sup>O until the beginning of June instead of <sup>18</sup>F as originally planned because of problems with the on-line production target.  The ISAC beam schedule has been changed to reflect this, as well as RIB delivery to the 8&pi; starting Monday. Full details are available [http://mis.triumf.ca/schedule/view?schedule=115&revision=ACTIVE&weeks_later=2&dateview=range&from=2009-05-20&to=2009-06-03&in=isac_wing&exp=All&detail=true here]. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
At ISAC, S1151 wraps up tonight.  We begin stable beam tuning for the upcoming RIB experiments at ISAC-II tomorrow.  We also hope to bring the new production target online, with target scans tomorrow and yield measurements over the weekend.  RIB delivery to experiment S1147 is scheduled for Monday. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:49, 21 May 2009 (PDT)=
=13:40, 27 April 2010 (PDT)=
Things came together more quickly than expected this morning.  The cyclotron is currently delivering ~105 µA to BL1A, ~65 µA to BL2C, and 60 µA to BL2A; this should continue for the foreseeable future.
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4.  This is expected to continue overnight, with maintenance, beam development, and training planned for tomorrow.  Regular beam delivery is scheduled to resume 08:30 Thursday with BL2A also coming online.


At ISAC, we're retooling the schedule for the next couple of weeks.  The Supernanogan high-charge-state source is being installed in OLIS in the hopes of delivering <sup>17</sup>O to DRAGON within the next few days, while TUDA takes more <sup>18</sup>F in the interim.  RIB delivery is still being hampered by the condition of the target; on top of that, we're now having problems with the Hall probe readbacks for the preseparator and separator magnets.  We can deliver beam overnight, but changing masses is problematic at best.  This will likely require protons off for access to the mass separator room tomorrow. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
<sup>16</sup>O delivery to experiment S1151 is continuing at ISAC-II.  That run will end Friday morning with stable beam tuning for two upcoming RIB experiments at ISAC-II to follow. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=17:08, 20 May 2009 (PDT)=
=10:48, 23 April 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
Today is maintenance day.  We're scheduled to resume beam delivery at 08:30 tomorrow, but that's not going to happen for a couple of big reasons:
The second round of patient treatments is complete.  PT will continue Saturday and Sunday at 08:30.  There are no interruptions planned for Monday; usually PT starts on a Friday (with setup on Thursday) so that the standard four rounds of treatment finishes the following Monday, but this week's treatment started a day earlier than usual.  In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A.  BL2C4 will come back online Sunday, with BL2A expected to remain offline until after Wednesday's maintenance.
<ul>
<li>The BL1A extraction probe failed during a foil change this morning.  It's been retracted into its housing; the Probes group will go into the vault tomorrow morning to inspect the probe and, if possible, repair it.  If it has to come out of its housing to be repaired, BL1A can expect significant downtime.
<li>We've still got air getting into the copper active water system.  That will also be investigated while the cyclotron is off tomorrow.
</ul>
There are other, more minor, issues to be addressed, but those two will keep us from restarting the cyclotron until late tomorrow at best.


On the ISAC side, we're delivering <sup>18</sup>O from OLIS to TUDA at SEBT-1.  The production target had to be cooled down to allow a power supply to be replaced earlier today, so we're taking this opportunity to investigate the poor vacuum.  The source will be restarted and the target heaters ramped back up overnight.  The plan is to carry out yield measurements and beam development tomorrow, once protons are restored; the schedule beyond that is in the process of being changed.  We will have to stand down the ISAC-II accelerators for ~3 hours tomorrow morning to allow radiography of the helium buffer tank support structure, but will resume delivery to TUDA afterwards. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Stable beam delivery is still planned at ISAC, with experiment S1151 scheduled to start Sunday. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=20:14, 19 May 2009 (PDT)=
=22:33, 20 April 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron's currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~65 µA to BL2C, and 60 µA to BL2A.  Beam is scheduled to go off at 08:30 tomorrow for 24 hours to allow an ISIS backplate change (among other things).  Beam is expected back Thursday morning.
Cyclotron development was held up this morning when it became necessary to replace the ISIS backplate on short notice. That had originally been planned for next week's 24-hour maintenance.  Beam is expected to be restored to BL1A some time tonight.  BL2A will remain offline until next week.


At ISAC, TUDA is still taking a mass 18 beam at SEBT-1.  The available <sup>18</sup>F rate does not appear to be sufficient for the upcoming DRAGON run (S1123), so the schedule will likely change within the next 24 hours.  There will be work in the Target Hall and other areas during tomorrow's scheduled maintenance, with beam development planned for Thursday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Patient treatment is scheduled on BL2C1 for the next five days (though only setup is planned for Wednesday). There are two patients, so expect ~2 hours each morning in which beam will not be available in BL1A. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=18:50, 15 May 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE =
=16:46, 19 April 2010 (PDT)=
We've been having problems with one of the active cooling circuits all afternoon.  As a result, the RF has tripped repeatedly.  The cause is not clear &ndash; it looks like air is somehow getting into the system and causing flow interlocks to fail, but we don't know how, nor do we know how long it's going to take to resolve.
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to the Solid Target Facility (STF) on BL2C4.  ISAC will remain offline (mostly—see below) until next week.


Before all of this, the cyclotron was delivering ~115 µA down BL1A, ~65 µA down BL2C (for isotope production), and 60 µA down BL2A.  The plan is to resume operation at those currents once we're able to keep the RF running.
The beam development shift scheduled for April 28 has been moved to tomorrow (April 20) so that high-current development can be carried out using all three beamlines.  The west target station at ISAC will be kept available until that is finished, then shut down so that the spent target can be removed next week.  The 24-hour maintenance scheduled for April 29 will be moved to April 28 so that startup of the next ISAC production target can start a day earlier than originally planned; this will also prevent us having to start the cyclotron back up (following the scheduled ion source filament change) on a Friday.  Otherwise the schedule will remain as-is, with the next experiment to take RIB at ISAC being experiment S1147 at TUDA-II.  


Because of the holiday on Monday, the weekly Ops/Beam Delivery meeting will be Tuesday at 10:00 in the Auditorium. As always, experimenters are encouraged to attend. &ndash;[[User:Morton|Morton]]
The up-to-date beam schedule can be found [http://mis.triumf.ca/schedule/ here]. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=21:24, 13 May 2009 (PDT)=
=23:04, 18 April 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA down BL1A, ~65 µA down BL2C for isotope production, and 50 µA down BL2A.  This should continue overnight.  There is maintenance planned for tomorrow &ndash; a short day starting around 10:00 for the cyclotron, and about six hours' worth of work starting at 08:30 at ISAC.  M9 is scheduled to be restarted following tomorrow's maintenance, but otherwise no changes are expected.
ISAC is currently off-line as the ionizer on the RIB production target failed yesterday morning.  There will be meetings tomorrow (Monday) to determine a course of action and what, if any, changes will be made to the schedule.  The new target is not scheduled to come on-line until April 30.  In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver ~120 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4.  This is not likely to change before Tuesday's "maintenance if required" shift. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


At ISAC we're finally delivering <sup>18</sup>F to TUDA at SEBT1.  We essentially had to start over this morning after having problems with both production from the target and beam tuning into the experimental chamber last night.  TUDA will take <sup>18</sup>F until next week. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
=21:12, 16 April 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE=
The cyclotron has been a bit unstable since about 13:00 today, but we're continuing to deliver ~110/70/70&nbsp;µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively.  We'd still like about another 10&nbsp;µA from the machine, but otherwise there are no plans to change things over the weekend.


=13:56, 12 May 2009 (PDT)=
S1007 continues to run at ISAC.  They plan to take beam over the weekend as they've been doing, with long implant/decay counting cycles controlled manually by ISAC Ops.  They may switch to shorter cycles on Monday, but otherwise we expect no changes before next Tuesday's if-required maintenance. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Another interesting day.  The cyclotron is still delivering ~110 µA to BL1A and low currents to BL2C for PIF, while we continue to try to start a new target at ISAC.  Proton scans of that target are underway (at reduced current) and it looks like some effort's going to be needed to straighten out the BL2A tune before we can continue to higher currents.  In the meantime, thing will continue as they are in the Meson Hall for the next couple of days. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=17:32, 11 May 2009 (PDT)=
=17:29, 15 April 2010 (PDT)=
A new target is being brought on-line at ISAC and PIF is running on BL2C, so the currents from the cyclotron are a bit odd: 110 µA down BL1A, nA down BL2C, and 25 µA down BL2A.  2A will continue to ramp up to 70&mdash;75 µA overnight, while 2C will continue at low currents until later in the week.  Meson Hall users will continue to take beam as scheduled.
Things are running much more smoothly than they were earlier in the week. We're currently delivering ~110/70/70 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively.  Our goal is to maintain a total extracted current of 260 µA, so we're close (and have exceeded that off-and-on all day).


The new ISAC production target (SiC #20, a high-power target with a FEBIAD ion source) is taking a long time to outgas.  The target vacuum is what's currently limiting progress; we don't want it to go too far above 10<sup>-5</sup> Torr for fear of sparking.  Fortunately there's not a lot to measure before delivering beam (<sup>18</sup>F to TUDA at its new location in the ISAC-II hall).  We'll have a better idea of how things are going tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, stable beam tuning to the experiment is underway. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
At ISAC, <sup>115</sup>Ag is being delivered to experiment S1007 at the 8π.  This will continue until next Tuesday.  On the stable beam side, ISAC-II development and commissioning continues. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=16:58, 7 May 2009 (PDT)=
=18:53, 9 April 2010 (PDT) (WEEKEND UPDATE)=
Maintenance is underway, and is expected to run all the way to 08:30 tomorrow to accommodate a vault access early tomorrow morning.  Injection and tuning will follow, so the full scheduled beam currents won't be available until late morning or so.
Beam was restored this morning, but the cyclotron is still not happy—the transmission is poor, and that's limiting the amount of beam that can be extracted.  We've been delivering ~100/60/60 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4 all day, about 15% less than we'd like.  Now that the machine's had a chance to settle down—the RF hasn't yet been on for 24 hours since recovering from yesterday's power bump—efforts will be made to tune the cyclotron this evening in the hopes of increasing the current in all three beamlines.


The ISAC target shielding has been reconfigured for east target operation and stable beam is being tuned from the new target and source.  First protons will be requested once the cyclotron tune is sorted out.  It will likely take a couple of days to bring the current up to a full 70 µA.  We'll have a better idea of how that will go once we get ~5 µA or so on target and see how things outgas. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Both RIB and stable beam are being delivered at ISAC, <sup>8</sup>Li to M1226 (βNQR) and <sup>16</sup>O to DRAGON for a study of the acceptance of the spectrometer.  Both of these are scheduled to continue over the weekend. On the RIB side, TRILIS development and setup to the 8π will follow; on the stable beam side, ISAC-II development. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=19:42, 6 May 2009 (PDT)=
=17:48, 8 April 2010 (PDT)=
We're into the last hour before a 36-hour maintenance.  Beam will be going off promptly at 20:30 so that the ISIS crew can get started on replacing the source filament.  Vacuum group will be doing work on the Linde cryogenics system as well.
We're still waiting on cyclotron vacuum and RF.  Otherwise things are largely recovered—beamline vacuums are good, ISIS is running (with beam extracted to the fast target), ISAC is ready to go, and experts are working on the stable beam tune through the ISAC accelerators for tomorrow's DRAGON test run.  The estimate earlier today was for beam in BL1A around 20:00 or 21:00 this evening (with BL2A to follow); that may be optimistic, but things are coming together.  Again, check the logs for more information. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


TRILIS development is continuing at ISAC with the last bit of beam available from the current target.  That will finish within the next 45 minutes or so so that ISAC Ops can run through the end-of-target checklist before protons go off.  We'll start switching from ITW (west target station) operation to ITE (east) this evening.  Tomorrow's main job will be moving the target area shielding blocks so that we can put protons into the east station following maintenance.  There are several other jobs planned, including the replacement of a power supply needed for the FEBIAD ion source on the new high-power SiC target.
=09:03, 8 April 2010 (PDT)=
A BIG power bump this morning at about 02:45 knocked everything—RF, main magnet, vacuum—off-line.  ISAC had a slew of failures as well.  Recovery is underway, but we don't know how long it's going to take.  Check the cyclotron and ISAC logs for more information:


Protons are scheduled to be restored 08:30 Friday with 100 µA down BL1A and 60 µA down BL2C. BL2A will slowly step up to 70&mdash;75 µA over a day or two as the new target is brought on-line. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
[https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/]


=14:41, 1 May 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
[https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/ https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/]
We're currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C, and 30 µA to BL2A. The BL2A current is reduced because the running experiment wanted a lower RIB rate; they're studying systematic effects in half-life data for a future high-precision measurement, and wanted to vary (among other things) the detector rates. We'll likely restore the BL2A current to 40 µA for TRILIS development this evening.


The ISAC experiment that's currently running wraps up at 20:30.  At that point, ISAC switches to setup for TRILIS development of tin beams.  Access to the mass separator room will likely be required at some point.  The plan is to get everything set up overnight for development running until next Wednesday. There is target hall work planned for tomorrow to finish connecting TM4 in the east target station, so protons are expected to go off ~09:30 for about six hours.  TRILIS development will resume after that.
We'll update things as we know more. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


Otherwise, everything will continue as is until next week.  Have a good weekend.&ndash;[[User:Morton|Morton]]
=20:44, 7 April 2010 (PDT)=
Last night's ISIS development ran much longer than expected and resulted in a need for a fair bit of cyclotron tuning.  That's why protons weren't restored until this morning.  Now that they have been, we're delivering 105/70/55 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively with µSR experiments running on M9 and M20.  PiENu continues to run on M13 while M15 is still being used for testing.


=22:15, 29 April 2009 (PDT)=
<sup>8</sup>Li is in the process of being delivered to the βNQR facility at ISAC (about eight hours later than we'd hoped, but still—barely—according to the published schedule).  That experiment will run until Monday morning.  Otherwise no changes to RIB delivery are expected.  The DRAGON group will take stable beam (<sup>16</sup>O) from OLIS over the weekend to investigate the acceptance of their spectrometer. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
After a slightly longer-than-expected cyclotron maintenance, and a somewhat shorter-than-expected day of target hall work at ISAC, the cyclotron is delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C, and 40 µA to BL2A.  This should continue for the foreseeable future.


At ISAC, setup for the next experiment (S1192 at the 8π) is complete &ndash; the tune was checked with <sup>27</sup>Al and <sup>26</sup>Na is sitting on the source Faraday cup at ISAC while the 8π pumps down.  They'll run until Friday evening, then hand over the beam for TRILIS development.  A target hall access to finish connecting TM4 (which was safely transferred to ITE this afternoon) is planned for Saturday. &ndash;[[User:Morton|Morton]]
=20:58, 6 April 2010 (PDT)=
The first long maintenance/ISIS filament change of the schedule is drawing to a close.  The plan was to implement a new theoretical tune for ISIS before injection and beam delivery later this evening.  Some proton beam is expected overnight.


=20:18, 27 April 2009 (PDT)=
ISAC is between experiments.  Tonight's plan is to restore and check the tune to the yield station once protons are restored so that the yields of Li isotopes can be checked tomorrow morning.  Once that's complete, the tune to βNQR will be restored and checked before delivery to the next experiment (hopefully by mid-day or so). — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C, and 40 µA to BL2A.  ISAC is delivering <sup>112</sup>Ag to the 8π (experiment S984) while SuperNanogan development continues.  No changes are expected overnight.


ISAC will switch to CSB development tomorrow morning; this will run until Wednesday's scheduled maintenance.  That will be a long day.  TM4 was moved to the east target station and back to the hot cell last week after it clipped the rim of the target station during installation, damaging the RIB shutter and the intermediate plate on top of the vacuum vessel.  The module has been repaired, but the plate can't be cleaned up until protons go off on Wednesday.  This is expected to delay the move of TM4 back to ITE by ~4 hours.  We expect to get TM4 under rough vacuum by the end of the day, but we'll still need another ~6 hours later in the week to make all of the service connections.
=07:43, 25 March 2010 (PDT)=
All three beamlines are now online: BL1A (~105 µA), 2A (10 µA), and 2C4 (~35 µA).  The beam energy in both 1A and 2A is 480 MeV.  The 2A and 2C4 currents will both be increased over the next few days as targets improve, etc.


On the cyclotron side, Wednesday's "maintenance if required" looks as though it will be required &ndash; a number of job requests have been submitted, totalling 4&mdash;5 hours of work.  The list will be finalized tomorrow. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
A target scan on BL2A will likely be carried out at some point today.  Otherwise beam tuning is still in progress. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=23:04, 24 April 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
=20:43, 23 March 2010 (PDT)=
Everybody's taking beam this weekend &ndash; the cyclotron is currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, ~60 µA to BL2C, and 40 µA to BL2A.  This should continue as is until Monday.
Beam is currently running down BL1A and 2C4 (~100 µA and 25 µA, respectively).  The 2C4 current is limited by STF water conductivity and will be increased as that improves.  ISAC is not expected to request protons down BL2A until late Wednesday at the earliest.


At ISAC we are (finally) delivering <sup>112</sup>Ag to the 8π for experiment S984.  They'll run with this until at least Monday, and possibly until their run ends Tuesday morning.  Off-line, SuperNanogan development is continuing for the next week or so.  No changes are expected over the weekend. &ndash;[[User:Morton|Morton]]
The cyclotron is currently delivering protons at 500 MeV.  Depending on how startup proceeds, the beam energy may be reduced to 480 MeV for the start of this running period in order to test the machine stability and production yields on the different beamlines at this energy.  Running at 480 MeV reduces the cyclotron spills (as the H- beam makes fewer turns at high energy) which, in turn, reduces activation due to scattered beam.  If we can run at 480 MeV on a routine basis, it would reduce the fields in the vault during shutdown allowing for work to begin sooner in shutdown with less dose to those doing the work. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]


=15:41, 23 April 2009 (PDT)=
=16:17, 18 March 2010 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering ~100 µA to BL1A and ~50 µA to BL2C.  BL2A is off; TM4 was transferred back to the ISAC hot cell earlier today, but the mass separator room is still open for TRILIS work.  Once that's complete, BL2A will be ramped back up to 40 µA as scheduled.
And we're back.


Beam development and setup for the upcoming experiment at ISAC (S984) didn't get very far last night.  Startup (following yesterday's maintenance) was delayed by problems with the nuclear ventilation system.  As a result, BL2A tuning and target scans weren't finished until about 23:00.  It was after midnight by the time that things were set up for Ag beam development at the ISAC yield station, and that had to be suspended this morning for the target module move.  Development work, for beam delivery to S984 tonight, will continue once protons are restored. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
We're approaching the end of shutdown.  The cyclotron is under vacuum, the main magnet is on, and both the RF and the inflector are at or near operating voltage.  ISIS is running and the tuning effort is underway; the hope is to inject beam into the cyclotron within the next couple of days.  Extraction down BL1A will follow, with extraction down BL2A planned for next week.


=16:12, 22 April 2009 (PDT)=
Regular beam delivery reports will commence next week. — [[User:Morton|Morton]]
Maintenance day is wrapping up.  ISIS tuning is underway, and we're just waiting for a proton enable on BL2A.  The plan is to restore the proton beam and deliver beam to BL1A, BL2C, and BL2A overnight (and until next week).
 
Tonight should see the development of laser-ionized silver beams at ISAC.  Before that, a <sup>26</sup>Na signal at the ISAC yield station will be used as a diagnostic for a proton scan of the target.  Setup to the next experiment (S984, a decay study of <sup>112,110</sup>Ag at the 8π) will take place tomorrow with the experiment scheduled to start tomorrow evening.
 
As part of today's maintenance activities, TM4 was transferred back to the east target station.  Unfortunately, the RIB shutter on the module will not open.  TM4 may have to be transferred back to the hot cell tomorrow (which will take several hours and affect our ability to get TM4 ready to start in two weeks as planned).  A decision will be made by ~11:00 tomorrow.  &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=16:14, 20 April 2009 (PDT)=
Work is continuing to bring BL2C on-line.  In the meantime, the cyclotron is continuing to deliver ~100 µA to BL1A and 40 µA to BL2A.  This should continue until Wednesday's scheduled maintenance.
 
At ISAC, the TACTIC detector test finished yesterday at ~10:30; SuperNanogan development is now underway.  On-line, TRINAT is continuing to take <sup>86m</sup>Rb.  They'll run until Wednesday morning and may not bother with <sup>90m</sup>Rb at all.
 
We will be switching to <sup>83</sup>Rb for release measurements before protons go off Wednesday morning.  TRINAT has agreed to give up the beam at 07:30 to accommodate that and to allow for BL2A to be taken off-line earlier than 08:30 if necessary.  We would like to get an early start to the target hall work as there's a fair bit of it this week. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=15:31, 17 April 2009 (PDT) &ndash; WEEKEND UPDATE=
No real changes from yesterday &ndash; the cyclotron is still delivering 100 µA down BL1A and 40 µA down BL2A with BL2C off-line.  Work is continuing to try to bring BL2C back on-line for the weekend.  Things should run like this through the weekend.
 
TACTIC is back taking <sup>12</sup>C from OLIS after venting to change what was in their target chamber earlier today.  They'll run until Sunday morning, at which time SuperNanogan development is scheduled to start.  <sup>86m</sup>Rb is being delivered to TRINAT; they'll take either <sup>86m</sup>Rb or <sup>90m</sup>Rb until next Wednesday morning. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=17:52, 16 April 2009 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is running, delivering 100 µA to BL1A and 40 µA to BL2A.  BL2C was getting ~50 µA earlier in the day as well, but is currently off-line because of problems with the target cooling water resistivity.  That will be looked at tomorrow.  Otherwise things should run much as they are (with BL2C back on-line) through to next week.
 
Stable beam from OLIS has been set up to TACTIC for detector tests.  These will continue into the weekend.  Yield measurements of Rb isotopes are currently underway in preparation for the upcoming TRINAT run; setup for that experiment will take place as soon as the yield measurements are finished.  Once that's done, TRINAT will take beam (radioactive Rb isotopes) until next Wednesday's scheduled maintenance. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=16:06, 15 April 2009 (PDT)=
We had a late start to today's scheduled 24-hour maintenance so that TIGRESS could wrap up their measurements with <sup>11</sup>Be.  Beam has been off since about 10:30 for an ISIS filament change.  The cyclotron should be back up and running this evening.  The plan is tune the machine, BL1A, and BL2C overnight then bring BL2A back online at 08:30 tomorrow morning, as scheduled.
 
On the ISAC side, TM4 was moved to the hot cell for a target change.  OLIS was switched to <sup>12</sup>C for TACTIC; ISAC Ops have been setting up the ISAC-I accelerators since.  TACTIC is scheduled to get beam for six shifts starting tomorrow, but we're going to try to get beam tuned through their target chamber tonight.  Tomorrow will be taken up with yield measurements of Rb isotopes in preparation for a TRINAT run (S1127).  The experiment is scheduled to start Friday morning, but we've asked that they be ready to take RIB tomorrow night just in case. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=18:35, 14 April 2009 (PDT)=
BL1A startup didn't go as planned last night because of a problem with the ISIS slits.  As a result, today was an impromptu maintenance day in the hopes of getting the things requiring vault access out of the way.  We've restored 40 µA to ISAC and will run BL2A as the sole user overnight, then shut down for an ISIS filament change tomorrow morning.  Protons may be available by midnight or so tomorrow; the plan is to work on BL1A and machine tuning until Thursday morning, then bring ISAC back online as scheduled.
 
At ISAC, stable beam is being tuned through the TIGRESS chamber while the low-energy section is scaled to 22.44 keV for <sup>11</sup>Be.  We'll switch over to RIB this evening, then run <sup>11</sup>Be to TIGRESS overnight.  There has been a request to switch to <sup>23</sup>Na just before the proton beam goes off tomorrow morning; ISAC Ops will coordinate this with TIGRESS and the Main Control Room. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=22:33, 10 April 2009 (PDT) &ndash; EASTER WEEKEND UPDATE=
 
PIF is finished for the time being, and the BL1A shielding blocks have been restored.  Otherwise, everything is as it was yesterday.  TIGRESS will continue to run at ISAC until Monday evening, at which point BL1A startup will begin.
 
For future reference:  We probably won't issue updates on weekends and holidays unless something happens that would affect beam delivery.  Current operating conditions can be inferred from the [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ MCR] and [https://isac-elog.triumf.ca ISAC] logs.  &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=13:49, 9 April 2009 (PDT) &ndash; EASTER WEEKEND UPDATE=
PIF is continuing at < 1µA while 40 µA go to ISAC for setup of the next experiment.  Shielding blocks are still being replaced on BL1A with the goal of bringing beam into the Meson Hall Monday night.  BL1A startup is scheduled to begin 20:30 Monday and continue during Tuesday's day shift.  '''Meson Hall channel rates will be needed.'''
 
TIGRESS will take <sup>10</sup>Be over the weekend (experiment S1209).  The mass change and TRILIS setup are complete, with the beam parked on IMS:FC14.  The accelerator tune to TIGRESS is still being worked on, but we should be able to switch over to RIB this afternoon.  S1209 will continue until 20:30 Monday.
 
We're not scheduled to deliver RIB during BL1A startup, so BL2A will be limited to 20 µA overnight Monday.  BL2A will go off completely by 07:00 Tuesday for Target Hall work.  It should be available again by 14:30. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=15:04, 8 April 2009 (PDT)=
The cyclotron is currently delivering 40 µA to ISAC and < 1 µA to PIF.  This will continue over the weekend.  The BL1A shielding blocks are being put back in the hopes of bringing BL1A online Monday night.
 
At ISAC, <sup>11</sup>Be is still going to &beta;-NMR.  They'll run until tomorrow morning, at which point we'll start tuning <sup>10</sup>Be for TIGRESS.  Sophia and Marco are tuning <sup>20</sup>Ne through the ISAC-II linac to TIGRESS in preparation for the switch to RIB tomorrow.  TIGRESS will run until BL1A startup on Monday evening.  &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=22:29, 7 April 2009 (PDT)=
In case you're wondering:  We're trying to come up with a way to give an overview of the current and near-term state of beam delivery at the lab.  The [https://isac-elog.triumf.ca ISAC] and [https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/ MCR] logs are great for record-keeping, but they're not well-suited to looks into the future.  What we want to do is provide staff and experimenters with a sort of "weather report" for the next few days so that they know not only what's going on, but what we're hoping to accomplish from a beam delivery standpoint.
 
The format will change as we figure out what we actually need to post.  In the meantime, feel free to forward comments. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]
 
=21:56, 7 April 2009 (PDT)=
Right now, the cyclotron is delivering 40 µA to ISAC and < 1 µA to PIF.  There's no maintenance scheduled for tomorrow, so things should continue like this through the weekend.
 
At ISAC, <sup>11</sup>Be is being delivered to &beta;-NMR for a polarizer test.  Sophia is setting up the accelerators with <sup>20</sup>Ne for this weekend's TIGRESS <sup>10</sup>Be run.  Tomorrow should be more of the same, with stable beam tuning through the TIGRESS vacuum chamber in the afternoon or evening.  We'll switch to delivering <sup>10</sup>Be to TIGRESS on Thursday. &ndash; [[User:Morton|Morton]]

Latest revision as of 18:25, 24 August 2010

Status reports on beam delivery at TRIUMF, and part of the Beam Delivery group's Guide for Experimenters.

Past reports can be found here.

Permalinks: Cyclotron status Cyclotron log ISAC log

18:45, 24 August 2010 (PDT)

SERVICE UPDATE: Because the wiki framework doesn't lend itself well to blog-like periodic entries, this page is being deprecated. In its place will be a Beam Delivery Updates weblog on TRIUMF's documents server. Past entries will be maintained here, but future entries will be posted there on an as-needed basis. The main page will be updated to direct readers to the new location. — Morton

17:41, 23 August 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is running well. After a brief interruption this morning to investigate a leak in the copper active water system, the cyclotron has continued to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~75 µA to BL2C4. There are a number of interruptions to different beamlines planned over the next few days. There will be maintenance at ISAC tomorrow (BL1A will remain online), a brief period of cyclotron development Wednesday (as high-current operation with BL1A ends for Schedule 117), a change of the 1A extraction foil cartridge Thursday in preparation for low-current operation with BL1A/B, and patient treatment over the weekend.

At ISAC, TUDA experiment S1233 has been cancelled due to a failure of the Phase 1 (cryogenics) compressor. We'll try to start the b-NMR experiments originally scheduled for Friday a few shifts early and use a shift in the interim for TRILIS development. The online schedule has been updated to reflect these changes. — Morton

22:07, 13 August 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

Everything is running relatively well. The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~77 µA to BL2C4. This is expected to continue through the weekend.

At ISAC, 30Na is being delivered to the Osaka experiment and data-taking is underway. Polarization was successfully established earlier in the week. That experiment will continue until next Wednesday's scheduled maintenance day. At ISAC-II, SCC commissioning is underway using stable beam from OLIS. That will also continue next week. — Morton

22:42, 10 August 2010 (PDT)

After a relatively uneventful weekend, the cyclotron is delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 45 µA to BL2A, and ~75 µA to BL2C4. This will continue overnight. Maintenance is scheduled for tomorrow; beam is expected to be unavailable from 09:00 until 13:00 or so. Please note that the cyclotron will remain on for the first couple of hours as the current machine tune is documented; this is follow-up work from last week's development shift.

30Na has been delivered to the Osaka experiment at ISAC, but has proven difficult to polarize. They're now taking 26Na to try to establish polarization before switching back. That experiment will continue into next week. In addition, OLIS is being used in support of SCC commissioning. This will also continue through the week. — Morton

17:15, 4 August 2010 (PDT)

Beam development will continue into the night, with maintenance (including an ISIS backplate change) planned for tomorrow. The full maintenance list is here. At this time, beam is expected late Thursday evening.

Stable-beam tuning from the new low-power Ta target in ITW is underway. The high-power ZrC target used for development over the past four weeks has reached end-of-life and will be disconnected and removed over the next two weeks. Protons are expected on the new target following maintenance, with delivery to experiment (30Na for Osaka experiment S1114) planned for this weekend. — Morton

17:37, 30 July 2010 (PDT)—(LONG) WEEKEND UPDATE

BL1A is getting a little bit more beam than yesterday (~130 µA) while BL2A remains at 75 µA. Beam is still being delivered to BL2C1 for PIF (at the nA level); this is scheduled to continue overnight with isotope production on BL2C4 resuming afterwards. We expect to run ~125/75/75 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4 over the rest of the weekend.

Yield measurements and source development are continuing at ISAC. Protons will be required off for several hours tomorrow (Saturday) to accommodate the move of TM1 to ITW; this was originally planned for last Thursday, but a leak in a cooling line delayed it. Development work will continue over the weekend, with an attempt to accelerate a charge-bred beam to SEBT3A/TIGRESS planned for Tuesday. — Morton

18:06, 29 July 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and tens of nA (off and on) to BL2C1 for PIF. This should continue overnight.

At ISAC, target/source/CSB development is continuing. A decision as to whether or not we'll try to accelerate a charge-bred beam over the weekend will be made tomorrow. — Morton

17:47, 27 July 2010 (PDT)

Beam was restored overnight, then stopped again due to RF problems, then restored again this morning, before BL2A had to be taken offline due to problems with the 2AQ15 power supply. That all seems to be sorted out now and the cyclotron is delivering ~120 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and tens of nA to BL2C1. This should continue overnight, with periodic accesses to 2C1 for PIF.

At ISAC, 4He is being tuned to TIGRESS for calibration purposes. This is being held up due to a problem getting the Prague magnet (used to determine the beam energy from the DTL) power supply to come on. Experts are being contacted. On the RIB side, CSB development and yield measurements are underway in preparation for a production test and delivery to TIGRESS later this week. — Morton

18:55, 26 July 2010 (PDT)

Back from vacation. Things were running well until about 16:00, at which point a power bump knocked a bunch of things offline. Injection is expected around midnight, with proton delivery some time after that. The plan is to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A, 75 µA to BL2A, and ~0.1 µA to BL2C1 for PIF. We'll see how things look tomorrow morning. — Morton

23:06, 30 June 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is currently delivering beam to BL1A and 2C4 (~115 µA and ~75 µA, respectively), but BL2A is off for the foreseeable future. Efforts to deliver RIB from the current target have been abandoned and investigations into the HV problems that have plagued us are underway. The scheduled experimenters will try to run with stable beam from OLIS instead.

This will be the last update for a while as I will be on vacation until July 26. As always, check the cyclotron and ISAC logs and the cyclotron status page (see above) for up-to-date information. — Morton

22:58, 26 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The current has been reduced in BL2A, but the cyclotron is still delivering beam to all three high-current beamlines: ~115 µA to BL1A, ~75 µA to BL2C4, and 40 µA to BL2A. We're not sure about BL2A, but the other currents are expected to remain at roughly those values until Monday.

We've had good news and bad news at ISAC. The good news? Despite our misgivings, we were able to reach 49 kV with the target bias overnight Friday, allowing us to start work towards delivering 24Na without the CSB. The bad news? It didn't hold—the target began sparking early afternoon, and we've been trying to restore the bias voltage ever since. Ops will continue to do so overnight, but we may end up having to attempt delivery with the CSB after all. Again, we'll know more in the morning. — Morton

18:48, 25 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

We're finally running beam to all three beamlines: ~105 µA to BL1A, ~75 µA to BL2C4, and 60 µA to BL2A. We expect to continue like this overnight, but may raise the current in BL2A to 70 µA over the weekend.

We ended up abandoning the attempt to run ISAC at high bias voltages due to sparking. This cost us experiment S1204 and led us to attempt delivery of 24Na to TIGRESS using the Charge State Booster. (With the CSB we can get to 24Na5+, allowing us to achieve the required 2.04 keV/u needed for injection into the RFQ at a bias voltage of 9.79 kV.) Unfortunately this resulted in a 24Na rate well below that required for the experiment. We're taking one last stab at running at high bias voltage now that the target has seen protons and had a few days to outgas, but if that doesn't work we'll attempt delivery with the CSB (as a development exercise, as much as anything). We'll know more in the morning. — Morton

20:29, 21 June 2010 (PDT)

We're currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4. The 2C4 target was changed earlier today to meet a delivery deadline. There has been some progress in understanding last week's TNF protect monitor beam trips—a correlation has been identified with the 1AVQ2 current—so now it's a matter of identifying and implementing a solution. We'll continue to run at these currents overnight. Tomorrow is a maintenance day (scheduled for 24 hours, but expected to be ~10) to allow the replacement of the ISIS backplate.

At ISAC, things are still going slowly. The shielding blocks over the west target station were removed to allow access to the top of the target module and evidence of sparking was found under the HV cover. Repairs have been made and Ops is attempting, once again, to raise the target bias voltage to above 50 kV. Protons will not be put on target overnight. A decision regarding the beam schedule beyond tomorrow's scheduled maintenance still has to be made. — Morton

22:57, 19 June 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is running relatively well, but ISAC remains offline as the target will not yet hold the 53.04 kV needed for 26Al delivery. Conditioning will continue overnight. — Morton

18:18, 18 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and a few nA to BL2C1 for PIF. Isotope production on BL2C4 (at ~75 µA or so) will resume once PIF is finished this evening. BL2A will remain offline overnight.

The target leak at ISAC has been repaired and HV and target heaters are being restored. Assuming all goes well overnight, the shielding over the target station will be put back in place tomorrow morning and protons put on target. It will take some time for the proton current to be ramped up to 70 µA. Yield measurements and TRILIS development will likely begin long before that, with the hope of delivering some beam to experiment (even if we're still ramping up) over the weekend. — Morton

16:15, 17 June 2010 (PDT)

ISAC remains offline as a vacuum leak in the west target station is investigated. Beam will not be restored to BL2A before tomorrow. In the meantime the cyclotron is delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and a few nA to BL2C1. This is scheduled to continue until Saturday morning. — Morton

17:59, 16 June 2010 (PDT)

After suffering frequent TNF protect monitor trips over the weekend, the cyclotron has been relatively stable since Monday. It's currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and a few nA (off and on) to BL2C1 for PIF. After taking up to 25 µA over the last few days, ISAC is offline due to an apparent vacuum leak. That will be investigated further tomorrow after the fields in the module access area have decayed. The scheduled ISAC experiment will take stable beam from OLIS in the interim. — Morton

15:31, 11 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4. There have been a number of beam trips due to instability in the position of the 1A beam at TNF; Ops and beam experts have been working to identify the source of the problem for most of the morning.

ISAC is still offline. The new production target is being conditioned; the hope is to get some beam (~10 µA) on target Sunday so that target scans and beam development can begin Tuesday. TIGRESS will continue to take beam from OLIS until Saturday morning at which point it, too, will be taken offline in preparation for the next experiment. — Morton

15:36, 8 June 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is running and is relatively stable, delivering ~120 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4. BL2A is off until the next ISAC target is ready for beam (likely this weekend). After a brief interruption this morning to access STF, during which the B20 tripped off (and was restored), we expect no interruptions over the next few days. There will be no maintenance period tomorrow.

At ISAC, 15N is being set up to TIGRESS. They'll take beam until Saturday morning at which point we'll switch from the Supernanogan back to the microwave source for the next few experiments. — Morton

20:41, 7 June 2010 (PDT)

The RF is being brought up. It's currently at 90 kV; once it's at 95 kV and stable, injection and cyclotron tuning will commence. Beam delivery may be possible some time overnight. Keep checking the cyclotron status page and log for more information. — Morton

14:56, 7 June 2010 (PDT)

The B20 has been brought online more quickly than anticipated. There is a chance beam might be restored late this evening or early tomorrow morning. — Morton

09:55, 7 June 2010 (PDT)

The Linde has still not been returned to operation. It's possible that the cryogenics group will switch back to the old B20 refrigerator to allow the cyclotron to run while the problem is addressed. That decision has not yet been made. More information should be available at this morning's 11:00 Ops/performance meeting (in the Auditorium).

At ISAC a beam of 15N4+ from the Supernanogan offline source has been developed. Accelerator tuning (to TIGRESS) is planned for today. — Morton

23:26, 4 June 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The Linde has been shut down. The thinking is that there is still contamination in the system that can only be addressed at room temperature. Work to restore the refrigerator will resume tomorrow morning. There is no estimate as to when beam will be restored. — Morton

16:50, 4 June 2010 (PDT)

The cryogenics experts are still working to get the Linde refrigerator running stably. Until they succeed, we have no idea when beam will be restored. Cyclotron Ops will continue to post updates here and here.

At ISAC, RIB delivery to β-NMR has been extended until Sunday morning. Stable-beam delivery to DRAGON is still scheduled to end tomorrow morning. — Morton

13:51, 4 June 2010 (PDT)

The Linde 1630 helium refrigerator was restarted this morning and the cryopanels are cooling. We still don't have an estimate as to when beam might be injected into the cyclotron. — Morton

17:38, 3 June 2010 (PDT)

The Linde began to act up coming out of yesterday's maintenance. It was warmed up this morning and will be restarted tomorrow (Friday). No beam is expected before 18:00 Friday. For more information, check the cyclotron status page or the cyclotron and ISAC logs. — Morton

14:49, 2 June 2010 (PDT)

Maintenance is underway. Protons are expected to be restored early this evening, with delivery to experiments to follow.

The ISAC beam schedule has been updated. See here for more information. TM3 has been repaired and is currently being tested in the ISAC hot cell; it's expected to be moved back to ITW tomorrow. This will take 5–6 hours during which RIB will not be available. The exact time has yet to be determined. — Morton

14:36, 1 June 2010 (PDT)

Cyclotron development is underway. The plan is to develop a tune with BL2A operating at 480 MeV and BL1A operating at 500 MeV and to run like that overnight. The previous 480/480 MeV tune will be restored prior to tomorrow's maintenance.

An ISIS backplate change is planned for tomorrow's maintenance. While maintenance is scheduled for 24 hours, beam is expected overnight Wednesday (barring last-minute demands for work).

The ISAC schedule is about to be changed as the extraction electrode on the next target failed during high-voltage conditioning, forcing a trip back to the hot cell for repairs. The current experiments will continue until Saturday morning. — Morton

13:57, 25 May 2010 (PDT)

It's been an unusual day in that BL2A is off for ISAC maintenance and BL2C4 was off for a target change while BL1A continued to take beam uninterrupted. We're currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4; we'll resume delivering 40 µA to BL2A later this afternoon. We expect to run like this through the week.

At ISAC, β-NMR will resume data-taking with 8Li once protons are restored. The off-line source is being set up to deliver 33S from the Supernanogan to DRAGON later this week. — Morton

15:46, 18 May 2010 (PDT)

Maintenance is well underway. The cyclotron RF is back on and beam is expected to be restored some time this evening. At ISAC, stable beam tuning (from the offline ion source) to TIGRESS is underway; online tuning to βNMR will begin once beam has been restored. — Morton

16:12, 17 May 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron's currently delivering ~100 µA to BL1A, 70 µA to BL2A, and ~70 µA to BL2C. This should continue until tomorrow's maintenance. That will take most of the day as an ISIS backplate change is planned; however, proton delivery is expected overnight.

At ISAC, S1147 will wrap up with the start of tomorrow's maintenance. TRILIS development and setup for the upcoming β-NMR experiment(s) will follow, likely at a reduced proton current. The full proton current will be required once we deliver to the experiment on Thursday. A 6–8 hour interruption will be required on Friday to accommodate a target module move. — Morton

21:55, 14 May 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The T1 water leak has been repaired (and there are photos in the cyclotron log) and beam is being restored to BL1A. The currents on BL2A and BL2C4 will be reduced while 1A is brought back online. In the meantime we've been delivering 65 µA to BL2A and ~70 µA to BL2C4; the hope is to restore those and bring 1A back up to ~110 µA as quickly as possible. Otherwise, no changes are expected through the weekend. — Morton

13:36, 13 May 2010 (PDT)

BL1A is offline due to a water leak at the T1 target. Shielding blocks are currently being removed to access T1. The full course of action won't be known until the source of the leak is identified. In addition, the beam profile monitor at T2 has failed; that monitor would be needed to deliver beam to T2, TNF, and the 500 MeV irradiation facility with T1 removed for repairs. Once the blocks have been removed from above T1 work will begin to excavate T2.

In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver 65 µA to BL2A and ~70 µA to BL2C4. The ISAC schedule has been updated again: S1147 will run until 08:30 Tuesday and S1142 (146Tb at the 8π) has been cancelled. β-NMR will run an extra week in its place. — Morton

21:08, 12 May 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~105 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~70 µA to BL2C4. We lost 42 minutes to an RF crowbar this morning, but otherwise things have been relatively stable. We expect to continue running like this through the weekend.

11Li delivery to experiment S1147 continues at ISAC. The schedule has been changed to allow them to run without interruption until Monday. — Morton

14:37, 11 May 2010 (PDT)

We lost time yesterday afternoon due to an unrelated problem with the Linde helium refrigerator—a fuse blew, causing it to trip off. That was restored yesterday evening and we've been running relatively smoothly since. The RF is still sparking occasionally, but the machine is gradually settling down.

We're currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~65 µA to BL2C4. We'd like the currents in BL1A and BL2C4 to be a bit higher, but the machine transmission is still not great (though it's much better than it was yesterday or over the weekend). Tomorrow's maintenance has been cancelled outright (see the beam schedule and maintenance list), so we expect to continue delivering high currents until next week. The RIB experiment currently running at ISAC will continue until Monday morning as well, with TRILIS development to follow. — Morton

10:49, 10 May 2010 (PDT)

After all of last week's problems we were able to run relatively smoothly over the weekend. The cyclotron is currently delivering ~110 µA to BL1A, 65 µA to BL2A, and ~65 µA to BL2C4. Transmission through the machine is still poor, though, so some tuning work is likely required.

The current state of the machine and plans for the coming week will be discussed in some detail at the weekly Ops/performance meeting (11:00 in the Auditorium). All are encouraged to attend. — Morton

22:59, 7 May 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The dee voltage is at 90 kV, the Linde motor frequency is still relatively stable—there's certainly no evidence of the fast oscillations we were seeing all week—and beam has been injected. There are currently 30+ µA being extracted down BL1A, with BL2A and 2C4 to follow. The transmission is still poor (not surprising, given that the machine has been off for most of the last six days) and the machine will likely need several hours to settle down, but it's a start.

Should the cryogenic system hold, the plan is to run high currents in all three beamlines over the weekend: BL1A is always run at >100 µA, while ISAC will want 65 µA in BL2A and BL2C4 will need 60–70 µA for isotope production. It will likely take some time to bring the total extracted current to the 245 µA or so that we'd like. In addition, there may be periods of reduced beam intensity to accommodate cyclotron tuning. We appreciate how patient everyone has been through this, but we still need a few more days to get back to where we should be.

Thanks. — Morton

18:07, 7 May 2010 (PDT)

And here we go again: The RF dee voltage is at 70 kV and (so far) the Linde appears to be holding steady. Ops has been asked not to increase the dee voltage faster than ~10 kV/hour, so it would still be ~20:00 or so before they'd be at 90 kV and some time after that before they'd be in a position to try injecting into the cyclotron. The plan is to deliver beam if possible, though the current may be limited as the RF settles down. — Morton

14:34, 7 May 2010 (PDT)

Things are still a mess—last night's attempt to restore the RF failed as the Linde motor frequency became unstable (again). An engineer from Linde is en route from Tulsa, Oklahoma; he'll be on site tomorrow morning to try to diagnose the problem. In the meantime, we're going to keep trying to get things going. Another attempt is being made to bring the RF online in the hopes that the cryogenics will remain stable, but even if this attempt is successful there is clearly a problem which will still have to be addressed. — Morton

19:42, 6 May 2010 (PDT)

After defrosting overnight, the cyclotron cryogenics system was restarted this morning. The tank vacuum is good and the system appears to be stable. The RF was started about half an hour ago and the dee voltage is slowly being brought up to its operating value of 90 kV. If things remain stable, injection and extraction down BL1A will follow, with extraction down BL2C4 and 2A after that. Again, check the cyclotron and ISAC logs for more information. — Morton

15:03, 5 May 2010 (PDT)

Beam will be off until at least tomorrow morning as the cryopanel system is brought back to room temperature and then re-cooled. We're taking the opportunity to perform unrelated maintenance, including the ISIS backplate change that was going to be necessary next week. Hopefully we'll know more by tomorrow. — Morton

08:34, 5 May 2010 (PDT)

And we're down again. We had beam briefly overnight, but the same problems resurfaced around 3:00 this morning. As usual, we have no idea how long it will take to resume beam—until the cryogenics and RF groups give the okay to restart the RF, we can't make any estimates

If you have any maintenance jobs that might take a few hours but can be wrapped up in an hour if the word is given to restart the RF, today would probably be a good day to do them. Contact Ops if you need a work permit; they'll be able to advise. — Morton

15:24, 4 May 2010 (PDT)

Work on the Linde is continuing, but there's still no reliable estimate of how long it will be until the problem is under control. Ops is posting updates on the Cyclotron Status page; additional information may be found in the Cyclotron and ISAC logs. — Morton

08:14, 4 May 2010 (PDT)

The good news? We were able to deliver beam overnight. The bad news? The same issues we've been having with the Linde resurfaced overnight. The RF has been off since ~07:00 this morning. We don't know how long it will be until it's restored.

The vacuum and RF experts are working on the problem in consultation with outside experts. Once the cryogenic system is stable, we expect a startup like yesterday's (i.e. a few hours from injection to full current in all beamlines). — Morton

17:57, 3 May 2010 (PDT)

As you may have noticed, the cyclotron is operating and beam has been restored. We're currently delivering ~115 µA down BL1A and 65 µA down BL2A, though this may be reduced for periods overnight and through tomorrow to allow Ops to work on the cyclotron tune. The Linde unit that supplies cold He gas to the cryopanels appears to be holding.

RIB tuning has resumed at ISAC. The hope is to switch from tuning to delivery of 11Li to experiment S1147 within the next few hours. — Morton

12:45, 3 May 2010 (PDT)

While we were able to restore beam for a couple of days following last week's repair of the extraction probe, we have been unable to deliver beam since Saturday night due to problems with the cyclotron cryogenics system. (Large cryogenically cooled panels are used to trap hydrogen and other trace gases as part of the cyclotron vacuum system; without reliable cryogenics, we don't have reliable vacuum.) A final effort is being made, in consultation with outside experts, to bring the system into regulation in the hopes of restoring cyclotron RF this afternoon (with injection to follow some time after that), but at this point we still don't have a good estimate of how long it will be before beam delivery resumes. — Morton

20:55, 29 April 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is still offline following yesterday's failure of the BL1A extraction probe. During a routine foil change the old extraction foil hung up on the probe mechanism; the cyclotron had to be vented for that foil to be removed before the probe could be withdrawn to its housing and repaired. The tank is back under vacuum and the probe is currently being tested. If all goes well, we expect proton beam delivery to resume tomorrow.

At ISAC, S1151 wraps up tonight. We begin stable beam tuning for the upcoming RIB experiments at ISAC-II tomorrow. We also hope to bring the new production target online, with target scans tomorrow and yield measurements over the weekend. RIB delivery to experiment S1147 is scheduled for Monday. — Morton

13:40, 27 April 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~125 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to BL2C4. This is expected to continue overnight, with maintenance, beam development, and training planned for tomorrow. Regular beam delivery is scheduled to resume 08:30 Thursday with BL2A also coming online.

16O delivery to experiment S1151 is continuing at ISAC-II. That run will end Friday morning with stable beam tuning for two upcoming RIB experiments at ISAC-II to follow. — Morton

10:48, 23 April 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The second round of patient treatments is complete. PT will continue Saturday and Sunday at 08:30. There are no interruptions planned for Monday; usually PT starts on a Friday (with setup on Thursday) so that the standard four rounds of treatment finishes the following Monday, but this week's treatment started a day earlier than usual. In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver ~125 µA to BL1A. BL2C4 will come back online Sunday, with BL2A expected to remain offline until after Wednesday's maintenance.

Stable beam delivery is still planned at ISAC, with experiment S1151 scheduled to start Sunday. — Morton

22:33, 20 April 2010 (PDT)

Cyclotron development was held up this morning when it became necessary to replace the ISIS backplate on short notice. That had originally been planned for next week's 24-hour maintenance. Beam is expected to be restored to BL1A some time tonight. BL2A will remain offline until next week.

Patient treatment is scheduled on BL2C1 for the next five days (though only setup is planned for Wednesday). There are two patients, so expect ~2 hours each morning in which beam will not be available in BL1A. — Morton

16:46, 19 April 2010 (PDT)

The cyclotron is currently delivering ~115 µA to BL1A and ~75 µA to the Solid Target Facility (STF) on BL2C4. ISAC will remain offline (mostly—see below) until next week.

The beam development shift scheduled for April 28 has been moved to tomorrow (April 20) so that high-current development can be carried out using all three beamlines. The west target station at ISAC will be kept available until that is finished, then shut down so that the spent target can be removed next week. The 24-hour maintenance scheduled for April 29 will be moved to April 28 so that startup of the next ISAC production target can start a day earlier than originally planned; this will also prevent us having to start the cyclotron back up (following the scheduled ion source filament change) on a Friday. Otherwise the schedule will remain as-is, with the next experiment to take RIB at ISAC being experiment S1147 at TUDA-II.

The up-to-date beam schedule can be found here. — Morton

23:04, 18 April 2010 (PDT)

ISAC is currently off-line as the ionizer on the RIB production target failed yesterday morning. There will be meetings tomorrow (Monday) to determine a course of action and what, if any, changes will be made to the schedule. The new target is not scheduled to come on-line until April 30. In the meantime, the cyclotron continues to deliver ~120 µA to BL1A and ~70 µA to BL2C4. This is not likely to change before Tuesday's "maintenance if required" shift. — Morton

21:12, 16 April 2010 (PDT)—WEEKEND UPDATE

The cyclotron has been a bit unstable since about 13:00 today, but we're continuing to deliver ~110/70/70 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively. We'd still like about another 10 µA from the machine, but otherwise there are no plans to change things over the weekend.

S1007 continues to run at ISAC. They plan to take beam over the weekend as they've been doing, with long implant/decay counting cycles controlled manually by ISAC Ops. They may switch to shorter cycles on Monday, but otherwise we expect no changes before next Tuesday's if-required maintenance. — Morton

17:29, 15 April 2010 (PDT)

Things are running much more smoothly than they were earlier in the week. We're currently delivering ~110/70/70 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively. Our goal is to maintain a total extracted current of 260 µA, so we're close (and have exceeded that off-and-on all day).

At ISAC, 115Ag is being delivered to experiment S1007 at the 8π. This will continue until next Tuesday. On the stable beam side, ISAC-II development and commissioning continues. — Morton

18:53, 9 April 2010 (PDT) (WEEKEND UPDATE)

Beam was restored this morning, but the cyclotron is still not happy—the transmission is poor, and that's limiting the amount of beam that can be extracted. We've been delivering ~100/60/60 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4 all day, about 15% less than we'd like. Now that the machine's had a chance to settle down—the RF hasn't yet been on for 24 hours since recovering from yesterday's power bump—efforts will be made to tune the cyclotron this evening in the hopes of increasing the current in all three beamlines.

Both RIB and stable beam are being delivered at ISAC, 8Li to M1226 (βNQR) and 16O to DRAGON for a study of the acceptance of the spectrometer. Both of these are scheduled to continue over the weekend. On the RIB side, TRILIS development and setup to the 8π will follow; on the stable beam side, ISAC-II development. — Morton

17:48, 8 April 2010 (PDT)

We're still waiting on cyclotron vacuum and RF. Otherwise things are largely recovered—beamline vacuums are good, ISIS is running (with beam extracted to the fast target), ISAC is ready to go, and experts are working on the stable beam tune through the ISAC accelerators for tomorrow's DRAGON test run. The estimate earlier today was for beam in BL1A around 20:00 or 21:00 this evening (with BL2A to follow); that may be optimistic, but things are coming together. Again, check the logs for more information. — Morton

09:03, 8 April 2010 (PDT)

A BIG power bump this morning at about 02:45 knocked everything—RF, main magnet, vacuum—off-line. ISAC had a slew of failures as well. Recovery is underway, but we don't know how long it's going to take. Check the cyclotron and ISAC logs for more information:

https://cyc-elog.triumf.ca/

https://isac-elog.triumf.ca/

We'll update things as we know more. — Morton

20:44, 7 April 2010 (PDT)

Last night's ISIS development ran much longer than expected and resulted in a need for a fair bit of cyclotron tuning. That's why protons weren't restored until this morning. Now that they have been, we're delivering 105/70/55 µA to BL1A/2A/2C4, respectively with µSR experiments running on M9 and M20. PiENu continues to run on M13 while M15 is still being used for testing.

8Li is in the process of being delivered to the βNQR facility at ISAC (about eight hours later than we'd hoped, but still—barely—according to the published schedule). That experiment will run until Monday morning. Otherwise no changes to RIB delivery are expected. The DRAGON group will take stable beam (16O) from OLIS over the weekend to investigate the acceptance of their spectrometer. — Morton

20:58, 6 April 2010 (PDT)

The first long maintenance/ISIS filament change of the schedule is drawing to a close. The plan was to implement a new theoretical tune for ISIS before injection and beam delivery later this evening. Some proton beam is expected overnight.

ISAC is between experiments. Tonight's plan is to restore and check the tune to the yield station once protons are restored so that the yields of Li isotopes can be checked tomorrow morning. Once that's complete, the tune to βNQR will be restored and checked before delivery to the next experiment (hopefully by mid-day or so). — Morton

07:43, 25 March 2010 (PDT)

All three beamlines are now online: BL1A (~105 µA), 2A (10 µA), and 2C4 (~35 µA). The beam energy in both 1A and 2A is 480 MeV. The 2A and 2C4 currents will both be increased over the next few days as targets improve, etc.

A target scan on BL2A will likely be carried out at some point today. Otherwise beam tuning is still in progress. — Morton

20:43, 23 March 2010 (PDT)

Beam is currently running down BL1A and 2C4 (~100 µA and 25 µA, respectively). The 2C4 current is limited by STF water conductivity and will be increased as that improves. ISAC is not expected to request protons down BL2A until late Wednesday at the earliest.

The cyclotron is currently delivering protons at 500 MeV. Depending on how startup proceeds, the beam energy may be reduced to 480 MeV for the start of this running period in order to test the machine stability and production yields on the different beamlines at this energy. Running at 480 MeV reduces the cyclotron spills (as the H- beam makes fewer turns at high energy) which, in turn, reduces activation due to scattered beam. If we can run at 480 MeV on a routine basis, it would reduce the fields in the vault during shutdown allowing for work to begin sooner in shutdown with less dose to those doing the work. — Morton

16:17, 18 March 2010 (PDT)

And we're back.

We're approaching the end of shutdown. The cyclotron is under vacuum, the main magnet is on, and both the RF and the inflector are at or near operating voltage. ISIS is running and the tuning effort is underway; the hope is to inject beam into the cyclotron within the next couple of days. Extraction down BL1A will follow, with extraction down BL2A planned for next week.

Regular beam delivery reports will commence next week. — Morton

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