Ion Beam Lab

10:08 pm - Irradiation - Day 13

Able to get enough current of the source to run today. Accomplished 71.7% of 3 dpa today.

Source was unstable for most of the day. Source had a couple burps when adjusting cathode position to get more current. Never truly able to reach a consistent steady state. Cathode cut out unexpected at ~14 hours of operation.

Cathode has NOT been changed out so people can learn the cathode exchange procedure tomorrow morning.

8:21 am - Leak and Arcing

Stinger cable issue still isn't solved. I keep getting continuous arcing above 40 kV.

Also, the copper manifold near the heat exchanger has sprung another leak. I've patched it, but the leak is pretty significant and probably should be repaired before continuing on.

I will not start up until these two issues are resolved.

11:01 pm - power fail

There was a power surge about 10p that restarted the computers in 719. The turbos in 303 had gone into failure mode and the pump valves had closed. The pumps and the water chiller were restarted, and the pressure quickly recovered. The post accel pump had not fully restarted by the time I had to leave to catch the bus.

9:23 pm - 2 dpa of 3 acheived

Able to get to 2 dpa today. Cathode has run for over 26 hours and hasn't showed signs of quiting. A-507 batch looks to be a good batch. Couple arcs off the stinger cable today (4 total). Maybe the humidity has something to do with it?

Damage stage and samples will be investigated to make sure everything is looking good before the final push to 3 dpa.

7:10 pm - Day 11 of Irradiation

6.22% for a total 40.6% completed today on the 2 dpa irradiaiton. After running for a while all the kinks got worked out and everything ran stable at steady state. Will start up again on Monday morning.

Cathode not exchanged but has life left in it.

4:00 pm - Failed Start

Complications with the damage stage and cathode from Friday caused a failed run for the day. A new batch of cathodes was tested (A-507) and showed good start up late in the afternoon. Magnets and accelerator were tested for through put and showed good response. Run will resume after NRA is completed.

4:09 pm - Leak Fixed

The leak in the heat exchanger has been repaired. The accelerator is back on-line and ready for use.

9:22 am - Vac System Down

The injector, magnet, and RF fore pumps were down as well as the magnet and RF turbos. The injector vac is back to fully operational, but the magnet and RF vac system is completely down and is not responding to restarts. This issue will be solved before starting today.

7:37 pm - Irradiation

6.15% of 3 dpa was completed today. The beam was shut down earlier than expected due to a seemingly unresolvable low throughput in the accelerator. This occurred after both the switching magnet and injection magnet shut down unexpectedly; magnet power was lost although both remained turned on. Turning them both off/on resolved that issue, but upon restart there was only about 20% of the current seen on cup 1 making it to cup 2. Refocusing, restarting, changing the stripper gas pressure was to no avail. I'm at a loss.

Also, note that the Cs oven temperature monitor is working only intermittently.

8:49 am - Leaky Heat Exchanger

Came in this morning with water on the floor. Tracked the problem to a leaky copper pipe inside the heat exchanger. The pin hole leak is currently patched with a rubber hose and clamp. The temporary fix should hold through the weekend until more extensive repairs can be completed.

Also, last night we were able to get another 9.1%. A total of 1.56 dpa out of 3 is completed.