17 May 2024 18:09 Our Accelerator Engineers have made good progress today. New ceramic parts have been machined for the doublet RF screen and will be assembled on Saturday morning. Once this has been posted into the ceramic beam pipe they will be able to lift the magnet assembly back into position and reattach the vacuum bellows. As this is a fairly complex and delicate process we will give a further update on progress tomorrow evening. 17 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 16 May 2024 17:02 Work has progressed well today with the RF screen repair. The old screen is out and the magnet is prepared to receive the new screen. The new screen is currently being machined and will be finalised tomorrow. Please keep checking MCR news over the next few days for any updates as work progresses. 16 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 15 May 2024 16:37 Inspection in the synchrotron has revealed damage to a section of RF screen and ceramic vacuum vessel. The expected time to repair is 5 days. If all goes to plan, there will be intermittent beam on Monday and stable beam from Tuesday. Updates will be given as work progresses. 15 May 2024 11:12 After measurements by machine physicists overnight and this morning, a decision has been made to gain entry into the synchrotron to carry out an inspection of the area showing high beam losses. Mechanical staff will now look for a cause of the beam loss within the beam aperture. This inspection will spoil the vacuum in this area and so a pump down of the area will be required. Early estimates are that the beam will be off for approximately 12 hours. Update at 16:00. 15 May 2024 09:15 Physicists are continuing to take measurements to diagnose the cause of the raised beam loss in the synchrotron. Update at 12:00. 15 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 15 May 2024 05:58 Beam OFF - We are still working on fixing the beam loss issue in the synchrotron. The Accelerator physics group have been working through the night on the problem and will now take a short break for a couple of hours to get some rest and a fresh team will start on the issue later this morning. There will be no beam until 08:00hrs 15 May 2024 02:12 Beam OFF - We will continue with fault diagnosis overnight and expect intermittent low rep rate beam to both targets overnight. Update at 06:00hrs 15 May 2024 00:13 Beam OFF - Following the physical inspection of the synchrotron there is no obvious damage so we will now run up the MMPS and continue with machine physics investigations. Update at 02:00hrs. 14 May 2024 21:17 Diagnosing the cause of the Synchrotron beamloss has so far been unsuccessful. We are going into the Outer Synchrotron to make a physical inspection. Update at 23:00 Hours. 14 May 2024 19:05 We have still not been able to find the root cause of the Synchrotron beamloss so work continues. Update at 21:00 Hours. 14 May 2024 17:09 Our Physicists are still looking at the synchrotron beamloss problem which is preventing us from running. As yet the cause has not been diagnosed. We will give a further update at 19:00 Hours, sooner if we have more information. 14 May 2024 16:07 We have had some issues with the Injector Beam Loss Monitors which has delayed diagnosing the problem in the Synchrotron. Our Physicists are still looking into the issue. Update at 17:00 Hours. 14 May 2024 14:39 Machine physicists are attempting to reduce the high synchrotron beam loss that's preventing us from running stable beam. Whilst this is being done the beam will be at a low intensity and varying rep rates. Update @ 16:00. 14 May 2024 13:37 We are experiencing an unknown issue that's causing synchrotron beam loss and raised vacuum levels. Experts are currently investigating the cause of this issue. Update @ 14:30. 14 May 2024 11:04 Beam ON 14 May 2024 10:36 We are experiencing an issue with one of the synchrotron RF power supplies. Experts are working to fix the fault. Update @ 11:00. 14 May 2024 09:31 TS1 Users: The timing issue that was affecting TS1 instruments yesterday was fixed overnight. Data from 00:30 onwards should be reliable. 14 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 13 May 2024 22:35 TS1 Users: Experts are continuing to work on the TS1 timing fault. Unfortunately, we are still unable to give an accurate time scale for a remedy but will update beam news at midnight. 13 May 2024 20:40 TS1 Users: The timing issue for TS1 instruments has not yet been fixed. Experts are on site and continuing to work on diagnosing and fixing the cause of the problem. 13 May 2024 19:02 TS1 Users: We are aware of a timing issue for TS1 instruments and have spoken to on-call control support who are currently looking into this problem. An update will be sent once this issue is fixed. 13 May 2024 18:24 MS beam restored to both target stations. 13 May 2024 17:57 Target 1 H2 moderator is now cool and ready for beam. We will now carry out a mode change to allow us to run beam to both target stations. This will take approximately 15 minutes to perform. 13 May 2024 12:53 The TS1 Hydrogen Moderator cool down started at 09:00 Hours. Target Engineers anticipate that if the cool down goes well the system should be cold at around 19:00 Hours this evening. Once we have more information we will give a further update. 13 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 12 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 11 May 2024 13:19 Machine update:- Unfortunately the warm up and cool down of the Hydrogen system on Target 1 overnight has not cleared the contamination in the system. The only thing we can do now is a complete warm up, blow the system through and then cool down again. This process is estimated to take 48 hrs at the earliest. Therefore no beam is expected to Target 1 before Monday evening. 11 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 11 May 2024 00:55 All TS2 instruments should be working. If you are still vetoing or have any further problems, please call the MCR. 10 May 2024 23:25 We are aware multiple TS2 instruments are vetoing. Controls are currently looking into the problem. 10 May 2024 20:41 TS2 users only: Machine setup continues. We have successfully transported beam down the Linac. We are now trying to get it going around the synchrotron nicely before we move onto alignment of EPB2. 10 May 2024 18:23 Machine update:- The Target 1 Hydrogen system has contamination due to the beam off time. As a result it now needs to be warmed up and re-cooled down, this process will take approximately 24 hours. We have changed modes to beam to target 2 only whilst the cryogenic fault is rectified and will be starting machine setup very soon. Further updates will follow. 10 May 2024 17:30 Machine update:- A lot of the equipment is now operational and back at standard settings to run. We still have a problem with Target 1 and will require a further few hours to monitor the cryogenic systems. Hopefully we will be starting machine setup within the next 30 minutes. Updates will follow. 10 May 2024 13:21 Machine update:- We have suffered a major power outage which has tripped a lot of equipment. Unfortunately this will take some time to recover from. Updates will follow. 10 May 2024 12:23 Machine update:- We have an engineer looking at the shutter jack on top of the target station, hopefully beam will be restored momentarily. 10 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 09 May 2024 13:51 Machine update:- Beam restored to both Target stations at 13:45hrs. 09 May 2024 13:19 Update: The MMPS fault has now been rectified and MMPS run up to operating current. We now have a fault on one of the EPB2 Quads - we are in the process of swapping this over for a spare. Update at 13:45 09 May 2024 12:22 BEAM OFF - The MMPS DC has tripped off. We are currently investigating the cause of the trip. Update at 13:00 09 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes 08 May 2024 23:29 Beam restored to both Target Stations 08 May 2024 22:39 Beam OFF - experts are still working on the kicker supply. Update at 00:00hrs. 08 May 2024 20:30 Beam OFF - We have a issue with Kicker 3 power supply. experts are on the way to investigate. Update in 1 hour. 08 May 2024 14:42 The extract kicker fault has been rectified. We are currently on to TS2 at base rate doing some machine set-up. Machine rep rate will be increased when possible. TS1 users - The H2 moderator cooldown has gone well and they are currently transitioning to liquid. If there are no further problems they will be ready for beam in approximately 3 hours. 08 May 2024 13:42 We are currently experiencing a fault with the extract kicker supplies. Experts are in attendance. Update at 14:30. 08 May 2024 08:40 Attention TS1 Methane Moderator Users: a liquid transfer will start in around 5 minutes