Jefferson Lab Weekly Briefs March 5, 2008

Jefferson Lab Weekly Briefs

March 5, 2008

12 GeV Upgrade

Design effort on the conventional facilities to support the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade continues to progress. On Feb. 1, the Architect-Engineer firm, HSMM (Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern) submitted design documents for the Hall D conventional facilities that incorporated review comments from the internal design and safety review held in November 2007. JLab Facilities Management personnel have reviewed these documents and validated the design is complete and ready for procurement. The signed final design documents are to be submitted in early March.

Also, a detailed construction schedule for the Hall D conventional facilities was completed by a local construction management firm. The purpose of this detailed schedule was a crosscheck on the construction phase durations and the “ready for equipment” installation dates in the 12 GeV CEBAF Upgrade baseline schedule.

Physics

All three Experimental Halls are in an installation phase.

 

Accelerator

The Scheduled Accelerator Down period continued. Maintenance items of interest are listed below.

  • Injector: Gun2 photocathode lifetime measurement and weekend bakeout went well. Gun3 will require more attention.
  • Cryo: NL06 hooked up and readied for radiofrequency (RF) commissioning, SL07 removed and SL09 alignment performed and waveguide installed. RF commissioning on the  newly installed cryomodules continued through the weekend (March 1-2).
  • Hall A&C new fast feedback (FFB) magnets installed. Commissioning with beam to follow later in the SAD.

 

Free-Electron Laser (FEL)

FEL staffers are making great progress on both guns. The drive laser has been aligned and the beam diagnostics have been set up properly on the Gun Test Stand. This means the first cathode can be activated there, beginning this week. The FEL gun is also making great progress in high-voltage processing and has now exceeded its previous operating voltage. The system will be driven up to 400 kV before success is declared. A test of an upgraded magnet power supply card was successful in demonstrating its hysteresis programming, so staff can now move ahead with production and installation of those systems.

 

JLab's Safety Numbers

168 Days since Last Recordable Accident (JLab record: 319)
487 Days since Last Lost Workday Accident (JLab record: 487)

JLab Calendar of Events

March 5: JLab Physics Colloquium: Albrecht Karle, University of Wisconsin
March 6: Nano Particle Safety Brown Bag Lunch
March 6-8: Photon-Hadron Physics with the GlueX Detector
March 9: Spring Ahead! Daylight Saving Time begins
March 10-14: APS March Meeting, New Orleans
March 11: Computer Center Maintenance Day, 5-10 p.m.
March 25: Science Series Lecture: The Civil War Unplugged
April 4-5: USQCD All Hands Meeting
April 8-11: 2008 International Technical Safety Forum
April 12-15: APS April Meeting, St. Louis

 

Environment, Safety, Health & Quality

A tragic local fire last week, attributed to a clothes dryer, resulted in three deaths. The U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission provides the following home clothes dryer safety tips:

  • Clean the lint screen/filter before or after drying each load of clothes. If clothing is still damp at the end of a typical drying cycle or drying requires longer times than normal, this may be a sign that the lint screen or the exhaust duct is blocked.
  • Clean the dryer vent and exhaust duct periodically. Check the outside dryer vent while the dryer is operating to make sure exhaust air is escaping. If it is not, the vent or the exhaust duct may be blocked. To remove a blockage in the exhaust path, it may be necessary to disconnect the exhaust duct from the dryer. Remember to reconnect the ducting to the dryer and outside vent before using the dryer again.
  • Have a qualified service person clean the interior of the dryer chassis periodically to minimize the amount of lint accumulation. Keep the area around the dryer clean and free of clutter.
  • Replace plastic or foil, accordion-type ducting material with rigid or corrugated semi-rigid metal duct. Most manufacturers specify the use of a rigid or corrugated semi-rigid metal duct, which provides maximum airflow. The flexible plastic or foil type duct can more easily trap lint and is more susceptible to kinks or crushing, which can greatly reduce the airflow.

 

Degraded Electrical Extension Cord "Lesson Learned"
Staff at Idaho National Lab (INL) recently noted problems with electrical extension cords that were degraded. The INL investigation noted indications of damaged and/or defective wiring. The cords showed excessive wear and possible damage due to overheating. Obvious signs indicated a prolonged over-current condition that led to the degradation. The CPSC estimates that extension cord use results in about 4,000 injuries treated in emergency rooms and 3,300 residential fires each year. JLab-specific extension cord safety information can be found in Chapter 6210, Appendix T2, Extension Cord Safety.

Computing and Networking Infrastructure

CNI Systems Maintenance next week
The Computer Center is planning a maintenance period from 5-10 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11. During this maintenance period, there will be rolling outages of networks in buildings outside of CEBAF Center. Computer Center staff will strive to make these outages as short as possible. Also, the central file server that holds /home, /group, /site, /mail, /apps, etc. will be rebooted to upgrade to a new operating system release. The fileserver will be back online no later than 6 p.m. Windows and Linux patches will also be released to Computer Center-managed desktops. Plan on rebooting your system as soon as practical on Wednesday, March 12. For more information, visit the Computer Center webpages.

Microsoft Office 2007/2008 Compatibility Information
The Computer Center has installed Office 2007 on all Computer Center-managed Windows systems. Windows and Linux users: for helpful information on using the new software, visit the Computer Center webpages.

Announcements

Radworker General Access RWP
If you are a radiation worker, you should have read and signed the 2008 General Access RWP; the deadline to update this training was January 31. To complete the training, cick the link, read the General Access RWP, and hit "Click here when you have read and understand this document." It will take you to another page where you will input your first and last name and the last 4 digits of your social security number or passport number. This will give you credit for completing this training. If you have any questions regarding this training, e-mail Becky Mosbrucker at becky@jlab.org or call x7236.

Nano Particle Safety Brown Bag Lunch
Bob May, ESH&Q Division Acting AD, is hosting a Brown Bag Lunch session on Nano Particle Safety. The discussion is set for Thursday, March 6, from noon - 1 p.m. in CEBAF Center, Room F224-225. If you plan to attend, please RSVP by 5 p.m. March 5 to Tina Johnson at cjohnson@jlab.org or x7611.

JLab Colloquium and Public Lecture
Albrecht Karle, University of Wisconsin, will present “Astronomy with Neutrinos” in the CEBAF Center auditorium at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5. IceCube is a giant neutrino telescope in the most remote region of our planet: Antartica. A smaller instrument is being constructed in the Mediterranean Sea. Karle will describe where these efforts stand and what scientists are measuring now.

Vehicle Counters
Electronic vehicle counters have been placed at some of the entrances/exits to the site to count traffic flow. They will be removed late Friday afternoon, March 7. If you have questions, contact Keith Royston at x6117.

 

 

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