Future Science at JLab
Take a brief tour of the future science at Jefferson Lab with the 12 GeV Upgrade.
12 GeV Updates
23 December 2015
After several months of computer modeling and analysis, the Hall C superconducting magnet team was given a green light to test the Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet on the Super High Momentum Spectrometer to its full operating current. An engineer from Michigan State University, where the HB magnet was built, is present each time the current is increased to a new maximum value. The testing program calls for increasing the current in steps and exercising the magnet systems while recording performance data. The data are reviewed for any indication of a malfunction before testing proceeds to the next current setting. As of mid-December, this magnet has been tested to 3500 Amps, or almost 90 percent of its anticipated operating point for the 11 GeV research program.
The three SHMS magnets being built in France are once again making steady progress. The dipole magnet has been shipped back to the magnet vendor's factory where the outer vacuum can, thermal screens and insulation are being assembled around the coil. All of the sub-assemblies for the quadrupole (Q2) magnet are expected to be ready for shipment from the metal shop to the magnet factory in early January. The third quadrupole (Q3) magnet helium vessel final weld is more than 80 percent complete. This vessel and the remaining Q3 components are on schedule for transport to the magnet vendor late in January.
10 December 2015
Late last month, the new spectrometer in Hall C was rotated to its maximum angle relative to the electron beam for the first time. This is a triumph for those who designed, surveyed and installed the Super High Momentum Spectrometer, since it must come very close to the curved wall of Hall C. After Jefferson Lab staff removed or relocated a final few items from the wall, the SHMS was rotated to a scattering angle of 40.2 degrees. The design specification calls for reaching at least 40 degrees.
A leak that was previously reported in Q2, one of three SHMS magnets under construction in France, was found to be in the leak-test equipment, not in the magnet. The Q3 magnet coil is inside its helium vessel awaiting further electrical tests before the vessel is permanently welded closed. The vendor continues to lose time due to problems with manufacturing the liquid-nitrogen-cooled thermal shields. Most of the shield pieces are now ready, but fabrication of the inner shield for the dipole remains to be done, as does the final testing of the shields for all three magnets. The outer-most part of each magnet is its vacuum vessel, and good progress is being made on all three of these.
The closure welding is complete on the vacuum jackets of the hex beams connecting the six coils of the CLAS12 Torus magnet that is being assembled in Hall B. Next steps include a detailed survey, followed by transferring the weight of the magnet to the main support legs. The major work in January and February will include installing the cryogenics service tower for the Torus and connecting it to the distribution can for cryogens. The distribution can fabrication is on track for delivery in January. The fabrication of the Torus Service Tower is in its final assembly stage. The Torus and Solenoid magnet power supplies have completed full current tests. Installation of the control cable harnesses and needed firmware is progressing. The vendor for the CLAS12 Solenoid is preparing for epoxy impregnation of both of the "Intermediate" coils. The bobbin for the fifth coil, or "Shield" coil, is expected to be delivered to the Solenoid vendor by mid-December, with the Shield coil to be wound and then epoxy-impregnated by late January.
18 November 2015
12 GeV Project installation work in Hall B is increasing in many areas. In addition to welding on the Torus magnet, electrical and electronic work on the power supplies and racks has ramped up. Hall C continues testing and measurements of the Horizontal Bend magnet and power supply, along with preparations for the arrival of additional superconducting magnets in 2016.
12 November 2015
Cosmic ray tests of the Silicon Vertex Tracker for CLAS12 have been ongoing since September, and the events recorded have been used to test track-reconstruction routines for the SVT, as well as establish correct readout, good noise performance, and full response for the entire detector. The High Threshold Cerenkov Counter has been completed and is undergoing testing as it awaits installation in Hall B. This includes monitoring of the relative humidity inside the gas volume, which is a key parameter for maintaining good optical behavior of the large mirror. The construction of the upstream support structure for the Central Time of Flight has been completed, as has fabrication of most parts for its light monitoring system and its transport crate. Refurbishment of the fourth and fifth of the six sectors of the Low Threshold Cerenkov Counter is well advanced. The sealing of the new LTCC window has been demonstrated on the first three boxes and tested successfully on the first box with actual counter gas. An order has been placed for the remaining fast electronic modules, the Crate Trigger Processors, needed to complete the DAQ and triggering systems for Hall B. Work is underway for the slow controls needed to operate all elements of CLAS12. Finally, the work to upgrade beamline elements has started.
5 November 2015
The conventional facilities scope for the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade is complete. Commissioning of the tunnel air conditioning was performed the week of Oct. 12. During commissioning, a control programming issue with the chilled water temperature in relationship to the dew point was identified. The controls subcontractor has corrected the controls programming and the system is working as designed.
29 October 2015
The 12 GeV Upgrade project in Hall C includes an improvement to the scattering chamber vacuum window seal. This is expected to eliminate the radiation damage to the O-ring that has been experienced in the past. The windows and frames for this improvement have been fabricated and successfully mated to the scattering chamber.
Force-restraining collars have been installed around the Q3 coil assembly by the magnet vendor in France. All three magnets (Dipole, Q2, and Q3) have now been collared and are at the factory where the metal cryostat components are being manufactured. The Q2 coil is in its helium vessel and has been pressure tested. Leak-checking of this vacuum vessel revealed a small leak, which will soon be repaired. The vendor continues work to resolve tolerance issues with the thermal shield components of all the cryostats. Some have been reshaped and are now within tolerance, while others are being re-manufactured. As a result, deliveries of the magnets to Jefferson Lab have been delayed.
The horizontal bend magnet (HB) was tested to 50 percent of its design current. Data from this test supports the engineering analysis conclusion that forces due to eddy currents will not prevent safe operation at full field. Approval to operate it at this current is pending an external review of the analysis and modifications to the magnet power supply. The Q1 and HB magnets have been simultaneously energized to low current in a successful test of the magnet control systems.
21 October 2015
Work is progressing in Halls B and C. Hall C is working on detectors and magnet preps. In Hall B, there is increased overhead work as they remove and install racks and cabling. Hall B also continues to work on the Torus magnet.
15 October 2015
At the request of DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics, Stephen Meador, Director of the Office of Project Assessment in DOE's Office of Science, convened a team of 14 experts and 8 observers in an Independent Project Review of the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade Project at Jefferson Lab on October 6-7. The purpose of the review was to assess all ongoing aspects of the project including technical, cost, schedule, management, and environment, safety, and health. The review team provided valuable feedback in all areas, and a total of three recommendations in the Close-Out Report. The committee congratulated the 12 GeV Team on the excellent progress made since last November and was impressed by the magnets during the tour of Halls C and B. The committee also highlighted the project's safety record and improved project management systems and processes appropriate for working the project to complete.
30 September 2015
The vacuum jackets are being welded into place on the hex beams connecting the six coils of the Torus magnet for CLAS12 in Hall B. Next steps include adding the cold to warm supports, routing instrumentation wiring, and adding the jumpers between pairs of beams, followed by transferring the weight of the magnet to the main support legs and removal of the assembly spit, which has been used to rotate the six sectors individually to positions where assembly can be done. The work at FNAL to wind and pot the coils and at Jefferson Lab to place the coils into cryostats has concluded, ending these major steps in Torus magnet construction. The vendor contracted to build the distribution can for the cryogenics for both the Torus and Solenoid plans delivery in November. The fabrication of the cryogenics control can, which will serve as the Torus Service Tower, is in its final assembly stage. Fabrication of the instrumentation chassis and racks, together with the cable harnesses and needed firmware, is progressing. The vendor for the Solenoid magnet for CLAS12 has begun winding the first of the two "Intermediate" coils. The winding bobbin for the fifth, or "Shield," coil is ordered.
23 September 2015
Conventional Facilities scope is 99.7 percent complete. On the Tunnel Air Conditioning project, the final closeout items include completion of remaining punchlist items outside of the tunnel, submission of project documentation (such as commissioning report and as-built drawings), connection of water meters to electronic central system, and final payment. On the Backup Cooling Towers at the North and South Access Buildings, the final project closeout items are the as-built drawings.
16 September 2015
Design of the final section of Hall C downstream beam pipe has started. This portion will reside very close to some of the Super High Momentum Spectrometer magnets when the spectrometer is rotated to forward angles, so the material properties and precise location are important. Similarly, the final detailing for components of the spectrometer vacuum system has been reserved until the mating parts of all five SHMS magnets are absolutely known. This detailing is now moving forward.
Progress on the magnets being fabricated in France are temporarily slowed while the vendor addresses mechanical tolerance issues with some of the cryostat components being built by subcontractors. Nevertheless, there is progress to report: the dipole helium vessel, which encloses the superconducting coils, has passed its pressure and leak tests; the Q2 coil has been placed inside its helium vessel; the Q3 coil and mating collaring rings have been finish-machined and are ready to be permanently joined. Testing of the HB magnet at increasing currents continues as improvements are made to its data-logging systems, the data are analyzed, and the numerical models that describe the magnet are refined.
2 September 2015
The four regions of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) for CLAS12 have been successfully mounted as a single unit onto the permanent support structure and then tested. Cosmic and other tests will be ongoing while the SVT awaits installation into CLAS12 in late 2016. On the High Threshold Cerenkov Counter (HTCC), installation has been completed of the main mirror, the gas windows, the photomultiplier tubes, and the light monitoring system. The HTCC will now undergo testing. The construction of the support structure for the Central Time of Flight has begun, as has fabrication of parts for its light monitoring system and its transport crate. Refurbishment of the second and third of the six sectors of the Low Threshold Cerenkov Counter (LTCC) is well advanced. The sealing of the new LTCC window has been demonstrated on the first box, and the seal was then tested successfully with actual counter gas. An order has been placed for the remaining fast electronic modules, the crate trigger processors, which are needed to complete the data acquisition and triggering systems for Hall B. Orders have also been placed for the remaining network gear and fibers. Work is underway for the slow controls to operate all elements of CLAS12. Finally, the design work on the upgraded beamline elements has started in preparation for their installation in early 2016.
26 August 2015
Commissioning of the tunnel air conditioning system installed under the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade project is finishing up this week. The chilled water to the chilled beams in each arc was balanced last week. A final inspection was held on Aug. 18, with representatives from the project, the construction contractor, Facilities Management & Logistics and ESH&Q. The construction contractor is working to complete the punchlist items in the tunnel by end of the month.
19 August 2015
Shielding blocks are being placed in Hall C to create a wall between the new Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) and the beam dump. The SHMS is shorter, and can rotate to larger angles, than would be possible if the shielding were part of the spectrometer itself. Jefferson Lab and university staff completed work on one of the trigger hodoscopes recently, and now half of the SHMS detectors are completely installed inside the concrete shield house, as scheduled. The other detectors are undergoing final assembly and cosmic-ray tests. The Physics Division review panel has approved a continuation of the testing program of the Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet, allowing the magnet to be energized to just over half of its ultimate operating current. Construction of the final three superconducting magnets for the SHMS are progressing, with the dipole magnet coil now sealed within its welded helium vessel, the Q2 coil squeezed inside its collaring rings, and the final potting finished for the Q3 magnet coil.
5 August 2015
The sixth and final Torus coil was welded into its cryostat, moved to Hall B, and mounted on the cold hub as of June 26. All 12 of the "hex beams" that position the coils and provide shielded space to run cryogenic, power and instrumentation services between coils, as well as out to the cryogenic service tower and power supply, have been installed. Splices of the conductor running between each coil have been completed, and the required instrumentation and insulation has been added.
The vendor building the cryogenics distribution cans for both the Torus and Solenoid magnets has completed the first major assembly point and projects delivery in October 2015. The fabrication of the cryogenics control can has commenced in parallel at Jefferson Lab. The magnet power supplies have been located on the space frame platform upstream of the experiment and are having power and water services connected. Fabrication of the instrumentation chassis and racks together with the cable harnesses and needed firmware is also progressing.
The vendor for the Solenoid magnet, ETI, completed the winding, potting and machining of the second "Inner" coil, which is the second of five major coils needed for that magnet. The winding bobbin for the next two "Intermediate" coils has been delivered to ETI; this includes the helium cooling channel for the magnet as well as the spaces where the two Inner coils will be mounted after the Intermediate coils are wound and potted. The bobbin for the fifth, or "Shield," coil is ordered for delivery by early fall.
29 July 2015
The last civil construction task for the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade, accelerator tunnel air conditioning, is scheduled to be complete by the end of August. The chilled water and fire sprinkler piping has been pressure tested. The last remaining installation activity is the controls - sensors and wiring. Water balancing and commissioning are planned to start mid-August.
22 July 2015
Both of the large, refurbished quadrupole magnets have been put in place for the Moller Polarimeter in the beam tunnel upstream of Hall C, while downstream of the hall, removal of aged equipment from the beam-dump tunnel is taking place. Delivery has been made of about half of the new beam pipes and stands that will run from the pivot to the dump tunnel entrance. Inside Hall C itself, installation of the Personnel Safety System on the new spectrometer has been completed and shielding blocks are being cleaned and brought in so they can be stacked to form a wall just behind the Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS).
The Q1 magnet acceptance tests and final alignment have been completed, and that fabrication contract is now closed-out. Low-current measurements involving the Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet continue. Careful, methodical testing and modeling of the components of this superconducting magnet are required to demonstrate that a quench, or any other sudden interruption in the current supplied to the magnet, will not damage it. The coil of the main SHMS dipole magnet, collared last month, is now integrated with its steel helium vessel. The Q2 magnet coil has undergone its final potting and been sent for machining on a giant lathe; splicing of the sub-coils of the Q3 magnet coil assembly has been completed.
Installation of mirrors, photomultiplier tubes and windows of the Noble-Gas Cerenkov has started in the Equipment Service Building, as has cosmic-ray testing of one of the drift chambers. These detectors are scheduled to go into the hall in Summer 2016, after the dipole magnet is installed.
15 July 2015
Work on the tunnel air conditioning systems is progressing well. A team of insulators have been working inside the tunnel while controls and electrical work is occurring above the ground. Over at the Central Helium Liquefier cold box, fit-up and welding of components is on-track. In the experimental halls, there are several activities in progress, including cryogenics and electrical connections for the Torus magnet in Hall B as well as low-current testing of the Horizontal Bend magnet in Hall C.
8 July 2015
The construction of the four regions of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) for CLAS12 has been successfully completed. The first three regions are operating as one unit in the Experimental Equipment Lab Rm 124 clean room, and the fourth is operating separately. The remaining step will be to rotate both units to a horizontal position and check their fit as one integrated tracker, after which the SVT will await installation into CLAS12 in late 2016. The High Threshold Cerenkov Counter has completed alignment of all the photomultiplier tube (PMT) mounts and is undergoing addition of the covers and access plates for its containment vessel. The next steps include re-installation of the main mirror and the addition of gas windows. The construction of the 48 counters of the Central Time-of-Flight detector is complete, and the custom three-layer magnetic shields do indeed work as predicted in the gradient fields that will be encountered outside the solenoid magnet at the PMT positions. Refurbishment of the first of the six sectors of the Low Threshold Cerenkov Counter (LTCC) is finished. This has included re-covering the mirrors with aluminized Lexan strips, coating the PMTs with p-Terphenyl, and re-coating the Winston Cones to improve ultraviolet response and overall photon statistics to aid in the LTCC's new role as a tagging Cerenkov for pions in CLAS12.
1 July 2015
One of the last civil construction tasks for the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade is the accelerator tunnel air conditioning. Under this contract, installation of the chilled water piping in the tunnel is now complete. Pressure testing of piping segments has begun. With successful pressure tests, the chilled water piping is insulated. Installation of fire sprinkler pipe in the tunnel arcs continues.
24 June 2015
The detector systems in the Hall C Super High Momentum Spectrometer have seen significant progress with the installation of both the S1XY and S2XY scintillator and quartz hodoscopes. These detectors and their frames were built by university staff and students at James Madison University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and The College of William and Mary through funding from the National Science Foundation. Installation of the large number of cables that connect to all of the SHMS detectors is now nearly complete, as well. Mirrors for the Noble Gas Cerenkov counter have been coated at CERN and are now safely back at the University of Virginia.
A major milestone for the SHMS dipole magnet construction was passed with the successful collaring of the magnet's coil assembly. Twenty-four precisely-machined aluminum rings, about three feet in diameter and six inches thick, were heated to 300° F to make them expand enough to slip over the twelve-foot long cylindrical coil. Months of planning and rehearsal paid off when all of the 'collars' were fitted on the coil in one eight-hour shift, as required. The same process will be used to collar the final two SHMS magnets in the next several weeks. Checkout of the HB and Q1 magnet systems continues in Hall C.
10 June 2015
Hall B - CLAS12 Magnets
The seventh Torus Coil (i.e. first of two spare coils) arrived in its coil case from FNAL on May 28 and was prepared for testing at LN2 temperatures. The sixth coil has completed this test and has had its first multi-layer insulation (4K) added followed by the thermal shield. The fifth coil has been welded into its cryostat, moved to Hall B, and mounted on the cold hub as of June 5.
Splices of the conductor running between coils have been completed inside three (of 6) supporting hex beams. The required instrumentation and insulation has been added in preparation for the addition of thermal shields and vacuum jackets later this year. The vendor contracted to build the distribution can for the cryogenics for both the Torus and Solenoid magnets has received the materials and is proceeding with assembly. The fabrication of the cryogenics control can, which will serve as the Torus Service Tower, has commenced in parallel at Jefferson Lab. The power supplies for the two magnets were delivered and have been located on the space-frame platform upstream of the experiment in preparation for running power and water to them. Fabrication of the instrumentation chassis and racks, together with the cable harnesses and needed firmware, is also progressing.
The vendor for the Solenoid magnet has finished winding the second of the five major coils needed for that magnet and expects to complete all windings by early Fall.
3 June 2015
On the Tunnel Air Conditioning contract, the chillers were delivered and set on the concrete pads on May 19. Warwick Plumbing & Heating is installing the piping to the chillers and the electrical subcontractor, Carr Electric, is running power to the chillers. Work in the tunnel resumed with the start of the summer accelerator shutdown. Warwick Plumbing & Heating is installing chilled water pipe in the west arc and the controls subcontractor, Dominion Electric, is installing conduit.
20 May 2015
Hall C: Connection of the Hall C SHMS Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet to all of its services was completed and the magnet was successfully cooled-down to liquid-helium temperature (4.2K). A challenging aspect of this magnet is that the distance between helium-temperature and room-temperature pieces is only a few millimeters in some places. The successful cool-down shows that this challenge has been met. During initial tests, the magnet was operated successfully at 10 percent of its eventual operating current. Careful engineering studies are being performed in preparation for full-current testing. The vendor building the Q2, Q3, and Dipole magnets is half-way through a series of practice tests that will conclude with shrinking the large metal collars onto the dipole magnet coils.
The new support system for the massive steel yoke of the SHMS Q2 magnet has been installed, and progress has been made towards completion of the gas system of the Heavy Gas Cerenkov detector. Installation of the large number of signal and high-voltage cables for all of the SHMS detectors continues.
13 May 2015
The summer accelerator shutdown period will begin in earnest on May 18. During this time, the remaining 12 GeV Upgrade civil construction work will be completed, mainly installation of the tunnel air conditioning. Installation of spectrometer magnets, detectors, and support services continues in both Halls B and C.
6 May 2015
Hall B: The first two regions of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) for CLAS12 in Hall B have been mounted on the cooling plate in the clean room at Jefferson Lab and are undergoing testing and burn-in. The separate cooling plate and support structure for SVT region 4 is also complete and is being assembled in preparation for mounting. The magnetic shielding materials for the Central Time-of-Flight (CTOF) have arrived and been checked. The CTOF slats have all had their outer light-tight wrapping added, and photomultiplier tube (PMT) and magnetic shield mounting has started. The large mirror for the High Threshold Cerenkov Counter (HTCC) has been assembled, checked and mounted in the large containment vessel. A gimbal-mounted laser is being used to scan the HTCC mirror segments and check the spatial and angular positioning of the 48 mounts for PMTs. The work to refurbish the boxes for the Low Threshold Cerenkov Counter is nearing completion and the mounting of components, including the Winston Cones, PMTs, bases and cabling, inside the first box has started in the clean tent. Calibration work for the Forward Time-Of-Flight, Pre-Shower Calorimeter and Electromagnetic Calorimeter already mounted on the forward carriage is proceeding steadily.
29 April 2015
Work continues on the few remaining areas of civil construction for the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade project. On the accelerator tunnel air conditioning contract, Warwick Plumbing & Heating continues exterior work in preparation for the chillers to be delivered in May and the summer accelerator shutdown to commence. The concrete slabs for the chillers are complete. Electrical work to power the chillers is near complete. The contractor started the exterior chilled water piping that will run from the chillers to the tunnel enclosure.
22 April 2015
The giant, concrete shield doors on the Hall C Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) have been outfitted with drive motors so that they may easily be opened and closed. Inside the shield house, the Heavy Gas Cerenkov (HGC) counter is now in position and connected to its data-acquisition electronics. Researchers from the University of Regina, who built the detector, obtained much of the funding for it through a grant from the Canadian government. The remainder of the detector was paid for by the 12 GeV Upgrade Project, as were the JLab-designed alignment, gas, and electronic systems.
The SHMS Q1 magnet, which arrived in January, has been cooled to liquid-helium temperature and successfully tested to its full design field. Connection of the HB magnet to its control, power, and cryogenic services is continuing on schedule. Cool-down testing is expected to begin soon, and power tests will follow.
The vendor of the final three SHMS magnets is making good progress. All coil winding has been completed, and only two of the 10 sub-coils remain to be impregnated with epoxy. The two sub-coils of the Dipole magnet have been glued together to form a cylindrical assembly, and the outer surface of this has been shaved down to make a nearly-perfect cylinder. The next step is to heat large aluminum rings and slip them over the coil so that when they cool and contract they will tightly squeeze the coil and hold the conductors in place.
8 April 2015
The Physics Division conducted an Equipment Readiness Review (ERR) for the Hall C Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet on March 25. The ERR is an essential part of the process for safely testing and commissioning each superconducting magnet being built as part of the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade project. Following the successful review, the HB magnet was placed on the Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) carriage on Tuesday, March 31, and cryogenic connections are now underway. In the area of 12 GeV civil construction, above-ground work for the tunnel air conditioning has been hampered due to the weather, but work is progressing.
1 April 2015
The fifth of six coils needed for the CLAS12 torus magnet arrived in its coil case from Fermilab on March 21 and was prepared for testing at liquid nitrogen temperatures. The fourth coil has completed this test at Jefferson Lab and is being readied for adding layers of multi-layer insulation (MLI), to be followed by the thermal shield, more MLI and its cryostat. The third coil has been placed into its cryostat which is now being welded, the second has been moved to Hall B in preparation for mounting, and the first coil is now mounted in place on the cold hub for the torus in Hall B.
The vendor for the CLAS12 solenoid magnet is in production with the start of winding for the first of five major coils. Winding is expected to complete in Fall 2015. A contract has been placed to build the distribution can for the cryogenics for both the CLAS12 torus and solenoid magnets with delivery expected in October 2015. The vendor for the power supplies for the magnets has finished construction and is putting them through a series of in-factory tests before shipment to Jefferson Lab.
25 March 2015
On the Accelerator Tunnel air conditioning contract, Warwick Plumbing & Heating is preparing the concrete slabs for the chillers at grade level near each of the arcs. The chillers are scheduled for delivery in May. To coordinate with accelerator operations and the chiller delivery schedule, minor site preparation was planned for the months of March and April.
18 March 2015
The second superconducting magnet for the new Hall C Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) was delivered on March 6. The HB (Horizontal-Bend) magnet is the end product of a program that started in 2006 as an R&D collaboration between Jefferson Lab and Michigan State University. Construction began in 2010 and has involved staff of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, as well as MSU. The HB Magnet must be compact but provide a high magnetic field, so that particles scattered at very small angles from the electron beam may be captured and analyzed by the SHMS. It uses saddle-shaped coils wound using reshaped SSC superconducting cable. The coils are tightly enclosed within a thick, heavily-welded stainless-steel H-shaped box. It must resist the 180-ton force that the coils will exert on it when they are fully energized. The HB Magnet is currently passing a series of incoming inspections on the floor of Hall C. It will be put in place on the SHMS carriage in the coming weeks.
At the request of DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics, Stephen Meador, Director of the Office of Project Assessment in DOE's Office of Science, convened a team of seven experts and five observers in an Independent Project Review of the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade Project held at Jefferson Lab on March 12. This review was to follow up on remaining questions from the November 2014 review. In the closeout, the committee found that the team had appropriately addressed recommendations from previous reviews. Further, while the superconducting magnets present challenges - with continued emphasis on process control, QA and vendor oversight - the project is positioned to be completed within the established cost and schedule performance baseline.
25 February 2015
The first 12 GeV Hall C magnet, Q1, which arrived in January, has been installed on the Super High Momentum Spectrometer (SHMS) carriage and connected to its cryogenic, power, and control systems. Following a checkout of those services, this superconducting magnet is now being cooled-down in preparation for its final acceptance tests. Close on its heels is the Horizontal Bend (HB) magnet, which is in its final week of construction at Michigan State University. The remaining three SHMS magnets are making steady progress, with the two coils for the dipole having been bonded together, and the final two (of eight) Q2 and Q3 coils now on the winding machines. On the SHMS, the calorimeters have been installed, and now the stands and frames for the remaining detectors have been trial-fitted in the shield house to assure that detector installations may proceed smoothly. Cables for the detectors are being installed now, as are the floor scales that provide experimenters with a precise measurement of the spectrometer angle.
18 February 2015
The 66 modules needed for all four regions of the Silicon Vertex Tracker (SVT) for CLAS12 have been completed and tested at Fermilab and were then transferred to Jefferson Lab. The cooling plate and support structure to mount the first three of the four regions of the SVT are nearing completion, after which assembly will start in the large clean room in the Experimental Equipment Lab. The magnetic shielding materials for the Central Time-of-Flight (CTOF) have arrived and are being checked. The CTOF slats are glued together and are in the process of having the outer light-tight wrapping added, after which photomultiplier tube mounting and testing will start. The large mirror for the High Threshold Cerenkov Counter (HTCC) has been assembled and is being checked. The large containment vessel for the HTCC has been assembled and stood up on edge in preparation for a test mounting of the mirror on its support ring. The work to refurbish the boxes for the Low Threshold Cerenkov Counter, after its long service in CLAS, is nearing completion, and the mounting of components inside the first box has started in the clean tent. Calibration work for the detectors already mounted on the Forward Carriage (Forward Time-of-Flight, Preshower Calorimeter, and Electromagnetic Calorimeter) has proceeded steadily, and the calibration plans for the entire CLAS12 were recently reviewed.
11 February 2015
The accelerator tunnel air conditioning contract vendor, Warwick Plumbing & Heating, made excellent progress during the January scheduled accelerator down (SAD) period. All of the 132 chilled beams are installed, and the majority of the chilled water and fire protection piping is also installed. The remaining piping work in the accelerator tunnel will be completed during the Summer 2015 SAD. Also during the January SAD, Warwick connected and commissioned the backup cooling towers for the North and South Access low-conductivity water systems. These towers, along with the previously installed 12 GeV cooling towers at maximum capacity, support accelerator operations during the demolition of the old cooling towers under the Utilities Infrastructure Modernization (UIM) project.
28 January 2015
The Physic Division held an equipment readiness review of the Super High Momentum Spectrometer Q1 magnet on Jan. 21. No major issues were identified and cooldown of the Q1 magnet will soon commence. The final 12 GeV Upgrade civil construction activity (tunnel air conditioning) is well underway. The related work in the tunnel involved drilling into the overhead to install hangers for the chill beams and associated piping. The subcontractor used a drilling tool for the overhead work. This apparatus allowed the subcontractor to apply an engineered solution to eliminate the ergonomic stresses to the workers, and the attached HEPA vacuum provided local capture ventilation for silica generated during the drilling. During the monthly progress meeting, the feedback from the subcontractor was that the tooling provided the added benefit of significantly increased efficiency for the task.
21 January 2015
The first of seven superconducting spectrometer magnets being built as part of the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade project has been delivered to Jefferson Lab. The first quadrupole magnet (Q1) for the Super High Momentum Spectrometer in Hall C is a clone of the High Momentum Spectrometer Q1 magnet; a cold iron design with a 40 cm warm bore, 11 GeV/c performance and a gradient of 7.9 T/m. It was built by Scientific Magnetics, Inc., in the UK and arrived on site on Jan. 13. Acceptance tests are underway. The Physics Division is convening an equipment readiness review for the new Q1 on Jan. 21 to assess the readiness for full, safe operation.
