12 GeV Upgrade

An important milestone for the 12 GeV Upgrade Project was achieved in September. The total design for the civil scope is complete. The major conventional construction will be the new experimental Hall D Complex, including the accelerator tunnel extension. The remaining scope is modifications to support facilities that are primarily associated with utility upgrades. There will be an addition to the Central Helium Liquefier (CHL) building to accommodate the additional refrigeration equipment. The low-conductivity water (LCW) and electrical distribution systems will be upgraded to support the accelerator operations at 12 GeV. The civil scope includes eight construction subcontracts to be placed during the next four years, with a total construction value of more than $25 million. The acquisition process of the first procurement, the Hall D Complex, continues. The Technical Evaluation Team completed assessment of the Offerors’ capability and discussions were initiated on Sept. 29.

Physics

L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science 
Now in its sixth year, the L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science program announces the 2009 call for applications. This year, L'Oreal USA will award five women with grants of up to $60,000 each. Applicants are welcome from a variety of fields, including the life and physical/material sciences, computer science, engineering and mathematics. The deadline for applications is Oct. 31. For more information and to apply, visit the L'Oreal USA Fellowships For Women in Science website.

The AIP State Department Science Fellowship Program
This fellowship is intended to enhance the S&T capacity of the State Department by enabling at least one scientist annually to work at the Department’s Washington, D.C. headquarters for a one-year term. This is a unique opportunity for a scientist to contribute scientific and technical expertise to the department and raise awareness of the value of scientific input. In turn, scientists broaden their experience by interacting with policymakers in the federal government and learning about the foreign policy process. The deadline for applications is Nov. 1. For more information and to apply, visit the AIP website.

Accelerator

There was an unusual incident last Wednesday, Sept. 24, when a Central Helium Liquefier IOC (input/output controller) failed. This failure resulted in higher than normal gas discharge pressures that led to a pressure relief valve being activated several times in a short period of time. Unfortunately, this caused a 10 inch diameter high-pressure helium transfer pipe to rupture. The pipe was repaired in good order, and the CHL started the process of checking helium inventory prior to beginning 2 Kelvin pumpdown operations again. Aside from this incident, accelerator staff is concentrating on being ready for beam operations in about three weeks.

Free-Electron Laser (FEL)

FEL staff members are cooling down the FEL cryomodules and high-voltage processing the gun in preparation for running. The high-power RF (radiofrequency) window tests were successfully completed. FEL staff also installed mirrors and established aligned optical transport to the last lab with the new Optical Transport System.

Theory Center

A new method has been proposed for extracting neutron structure functions from inclusive structure functions of nuclei (arXiv:0809.4308 [nucl-th]). Unlike earlier approaches, the new method is applicable to both spin-averaged and spin-dependent structure functions and is able to reproduce known input functions of almost arbitrary shape to very good accuracy with only several iterations. The method is currently being applied to the analysis of JLab data on structure functions of deuterium and helium-3 nuclei.

Engineering

The Installation and Vacuum group has been performing acid flushing of all power supplies in the beam switchyard service building and installing additional LCW taps in Hall C. Alignment and Metrology group members completed the initial alignment of the Hall C Spin Asymmetries of the Nucleon target (SANE: E07-003) and the Hall A Transversity target (E06-10/E07-013).

Environment, Safety, Health & Quality

Over the past three months, the site has experienced a number of near-miss safety incidents involving pressurized piping, electrical components, wild animals and slips, trips and falls. Unfortunately, we've also experienced a severe injury. An important correlation exists between these events; they were reported, investigated and analyzed. Because of that, we were able to learn from them and apply corrective and preventive actions site-wide.

The most important component of these investigations is the initial employee notification to their supervisor. For instance, if the recent slip, trip and fall incidents had not been reported, the hazard would not have been identified as a site-wide issue. However, our colleagues presented the information, which then allowed lab management to identify this as a hazardous trend. Facilities Management is currently surveying the entries and exits throughout the site to identify whether non-skid material is appropriate to mitigate the risk. Therefore, the entire site is now safer for all of us, simply because our colleagues took the crucial first step of reporting the events.

In summary, our most important objective is to work safely. Sharing information that could prevent future incidents or injuries plays a critical role in that objective.

Computing and Networking Infrastructure (CNI)

The CNI group has scheduled a maintenance period from 5-10 p.m. Tuesday, Oct 7. The central login servers, jlabl1 and jlabs1 will be down while they are moved to a new network. Jlabl1 will be rebuilt to use Redhat Enterprise Linux 5, so it will be down for an hour or so. The FEL networks will be down for about 30 minutes for network switch code upgrades; expect connection problems during that time. Linux and Windows patches will be pushed out to desktops and servers. Computers users with these CUE systems should plan on rebooting their desktop system(s) on Wednesday to complete the installation.

Announcements

Blood Drive Set for October 7
The next American Red Cross Blood Drive is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in CEBAF Center F113. New and repeat donors are encouraged to attend. Appointments and walk-ins are welcome. Contact Johnie Banks at x7539 or jbanks@jlab.org to schedule an appointment or to volunteer. Blood donation eligibility guidelines can be found online.

Flu Shots
Occupational Medicine has now received its shipment of Influenza vaccine. If you would like to be vaccinated, please contact Johnie Banks at x7539 to schedule an appointment. Keep in mind that for 15 minutes after vaccination, you should remain at JLab in the presence of other people and avoid safety sensitive activities, including driving.

Excess-Freestock Furniture Moves to New Building
JLab excess furniture that had previously been kept in building 13 has been moved to the new General Purpose Building (#36) on the accelerator site. The building is adjacent to the South Access Building (#38). For more information about excess property and Freestock items that are available and may be re-assigned to JLab work groups, contact Lawrence Ferbee, x6297 or Bill Brisiel, x7233.

$4-off Coupons for State Fair Ride Wristband
The State Fair of Virginia runs Sept. 25 - Oct. 5. A supply of State Fair brochures and $4-off ride wristband coupons are currently available at the CEBAF Center, VARC and ARC reception desks. This is the last year that the State Fair will be held in Richmond at the Richmond International Raceway. Next year, it will be held at its new home in Caroline County north of Richmond on I-95.

Friday Deadline for Entry in the JLab 2008 Fall Golf Tournament!
The tournament will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 8, at the Williamsburg Country Club in Williamsburg. The event will begin at 1 p.m. with a shotgun start. The tournament will be a four-person Captain's Choice. All teams will be handicapped. There must be at least two JLab employees per team. The cost for JLab employees is $45 each, and the cost for non-JLab employees is $60. The fee includes range balls, green fees, cart, food (afterwards) and the prize fund.
 
See Danny Machie (ARC 402/09, x7501) to sign up. Golfers must list their average score for 18 holes, and checks should be made payable to Danny Machie. The entry deadline is Friday, Oct. 3.

JLab's Safety Numbers

21 Days since Last Recordable Accident (JLab record: 331)
21 Days since Last Lost Workday Accident (JLab record: 676)

JLab Calendar of Events

Oct. 1-4: Workshop on Sources of Polarized Electrons and High Brightness Electron Beams (PESP2008)
Oct. 7: American Red Cross Blood Drive
Oct. 13-15: Electromagnetic N-N* Transition Form Factors Workshop
Oct. 14: Science Series Lecture: Fun with Astronomy
Oct. 29: JLab Fall Festival
Nov. 27-28: Thanksgiving holidays - JLab closed