12 GeV Upgrade

With 17 weeks into the 2011 Six Month Shutdown and 10 weeks remaining, 12 GeV installation work is progressing as planned. Installation activities will continue for approximately six weeks, and then the accelerator start-up and related commissioning activities will begin. Continued vigilance on safety remains a priority. In addition, 12 GeV logistical planning efforts are a continuous process to support fabrication and testing of components in preparation for installation during the next machine shutdown period.

Physics

Hall A has had a review of the status of the g2p installation. At this point, the completion date of the installation will mostly depend on the arrival time of equipment from vendors. The status report slides can be found online.

The large quadrupole magnet for the Hall C Moller polarimeter, which has instability problems, has been removed from the Hall C beamline by the mechanical installation group. An unused quadrupole, currently on the beamline, will be moved, replacing the functionality of the unstable magnet. Maintenance on the Q-weak high-power hydrogen target has been completed and the target has been moved back into the scattering chamber.

Accelerator

Much of last Monday was spent recovering systems from being shut down for the hurricane. The thermal relief valve for 2L24 was replaced and it was initially cooled down to 4 Kelvin then later to the 2K required for commissioning. The operator for the cryogenic valve downstream of 2L24 was replaced with a faster version, as the current design was too slow to be used with certain commissioning tests. Waveguide installation for 2L25 continues; pressure tests show no leaks. High-power amplifier testing of 2L25 continues to show good results. Magnet shim installations are complete, except for a few requiring adjustments. Refurbished dipole magnet polarity tests continue, with all polarity results as expected so far. The Fibercast repair of the South Access building cooling water flange continued. The South Linac service building cooling water system pressure tested okay. North Linac service building pipe inspection and installation of wear pads continues. Lastly, replacement has begun of the Machine Control Center (MCC) air conditioning compressor, which was damaged during the hurricane.

Free-Electron Laser

The FEL team stopped processing the gun at 320 kilovolts and heat cleaned the cathode over the weekend in preparation for running beam this week. The vault was reposted for running beam and radiofrequency was run in the cryomodules. The group intends to spend this week re-establishing beam in the injector. The ultraviolet wiggler passed its certification tests at STI Optronics and will be shipped back to JLab to arrive about Sept. 15.

Center for Theoretical and Computational Physics

In a new paper, the axial-vector current matrix elements between various mesons and baryons containing a single bottom quark were calculated in chiral perturbation theory. These results are necessary for extrapolations of lattice calculations of the corresponding matrix elements to physical values of the light quark masses. The calculations will also constrain predictions for the strong decay amplitudes for singly bottom baryons.

Engineering

The installation group removed the Hall C Q-weak Moller quadruple and tested its coil. The results of this testing were that the coil failed and fixes are being examined. All of the dipoles in both the east arc and the west arc that were refurbished have been reinstalled. Additionally in the arcs, all beam pipes have been reconnected, put under vacuum, pumped down and leak checked. The cathode power supply in LN22 has been installed. In the west arc 10th pass, all XP four-meter dipoles and new QP-style quadruples that don't interfere with 6 GeV operations have been installed. All the warm region girders in the south linac have been installed except where the second C100 is scheduled to be installed during this down period.

The EES RF Group successfully ran RF power into waveguide shorts for the second new 12 GeV RF system on Sept. 2.

Environment, Safety, Health and Quality

This past Saturday, Sept. 3, marked the 20th anniversary of North Carolina’s worst industrial disaster: the Imperial Food Products plant fire in Hamlet that killed 25 workers and injured 56 others. After gas burners ignited a ruptured hydraulic line, panicked employees rushed for the emergency exit doors, only to find some of them padlocked. Rescue crews found bodies around the locked doors and in the freezer, where workers fled to escape the heat and smoke.
 
This is a good time to remind ourselves of the exits available to us from our own work areas. Take a moment to consult the emergency evacuation plans for buildings at JLab (listed by building number). View the plans for your building and other buildings you frequently enter (plans are also posted in individual buildings) and identify the locations of fire extinguishers, fire alarm pull stations, muster points and severe wind "take cover" areas. Note the suggested exit path for your work area and those nearby. Taking a minute now to familiarize yourself with these plans can help you exit your work area quickly and confidently in the event of an emergency or drill.

Computing and Networking Infrastructure

PC Purchase Program
The CNI group has joined with the Stockroom to form the JLab PC Purchase Program. This program makes the purchasing of desktops, laptops and monitors easier and faster. The equipment is suitable for our environment and is ADP pre-approved. Visit the JLab PC Purchase Program webpage for more details.

Announcements

Onsite TIAA-CREF Counseling Offered
TIAA-CREF will offer individual counseling sessions onsite on Oct. 7, Nov. 4, Nov. 17 and Dec. 8. In these sessions, employees can discuss their personal financial situation with a TIAA-CREF consultant on a confidential basis. To discuss your plan and options for managing your retirement savings or to schedule an appointment with a TIAA-CREF individual consultant, call TIAA-CREF at (800) 732-8353, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.

Minority Undergraduate Research Assistantship
JLab has extended the deadline for candidates from SURA universities for a research assistantship. The program will sponsor a minority undergraduate student to work on projects that are part of the lab’s research program or directly related to the scientific or engineering aspects of the research program. This assistantship is funded by the JSA Initiatives Fund and will provide funds to support the student at the university during the 2011-2012 academic year. Nominations are due Sept. 9 and must be submitted by the faculty sponsor before the student may apply. Faculty sponsors may obtain more information and submit their nomination online.

Dance Your Ph.D. Contest Call for Entries
Put on your dancing shoes and pull out your video camera for the Dance Your Ph.D. contest 2011. In this international competition, scientists explain their graduate work through an interpretive dance. Video entries are due Oct. 10.  Finalists in each of four categories win $500, and the grand-prize winner will receive an additional $500 plus travel and accommodation to TEDxBrussels, one of the largest gatherings of artists and scientists in the world, in Belgium on Nov. 22.

Tracking Thomas at JLab
Little Thomas is visiting all corners of the JLab campus. If you can identify his location this week, email Kandice Carter with your guess. Guesses are accepted through Fridays.

Congratulations to Harry Fanning, Marcy Stutzman and Doug Higinbotham, who were the first to correctly identify the Aug. 31 location. Honorable mentions go to David Anthony, Michelle Shinn, Ron Bartek and Mike Davis. Check out the Tracking Thomas webpage for a better view of his last location and this week's new mystery photo.

JLab Calendar of Events

Sept. 12: Safety Shoe vendor onsite
Sept. 14: Calendar vendor in CEBAF Center lobby, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Sept. 26: Safety Shoe Vendor onsite
Nov. 6: Daylight Saving Time ends
Nov. 24-25: Thanksgiving holiday; JLab closed