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["Kiselev, Alexander" <ayk AT bnl.gov>]

  Hello colleagues,

  See a message from FTBF management below, with an explicit recommendation highlighted. It looks like a can of worms a la "where to go for a beam test if not to Fermilab?" may, somewhat unexpectedly, start opening for us again. However, the technical details provided in this e-mail do not sound catastrophic so far. Unless there are concrete alternative proposals to consider, let's first see how the situation develops.

  Regards,

    Alexander.

---

From: Evan D. Niner <edniner AT fnal.gov>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2024 2:17 PM
To: Gnanvo Kondo <kagnanvo AT jlab.org>; Chris.Madrid AT ttu.edu <Chris.Madrid AT ttu.edu>; Corrado Gatto <gatto AT fnal.gov>; Kiselev, Alexander <ayk AT bnl.gov>; Miguel I Arratia Munoz <miguela AT ucr.edu>; Zhenyu Ye <yezhenyu AT lbl.gov>; Murtaza Safdari <murtazas AT fnal.gov>; Morand, Peter O. <pmorand AT exeter.edu>; christina.wenlu.wang AT cern.ch <christina.wenlu.wang AT cern.ch>; Irene Dutta <idutta AT fnal.gov>; cherry AT lsu.edu <cherry AT lsu.edu>; James H. Buckley <buckley AT wuphys.wustl.edu>; Mauro Dinardo <Mauro.Dinardo AT cern.ch>; Sudeshna Ganguly <sganguly AT fnal.gov>; Zhu, Junjie <junjie AT umich.edu>; Grace E. Cummings <gcumming AT fnal.gov>; Manoj Bhanudas Jadhav <mjadhav AT anl.gov>; Megan Elizabeth Connors <mconnors AT gsu.edu>; Koji Nakamura <Koji.Nakamura AT cern.ch>; Corrinne Elaine Mills <cmills10 AT uic.edu>; Wooyoung Jang <wyjang.physics AT gmail.com>; Yasar Onel <yasar-onel AT uiowa.edu>; theim AT lbl.gov <theim AT lbl.gov>; Vladimir P Nagaslaev <vnagasl AT fnal.gov>; Whitney R. Armstrong <warmstrong AT anl.gov>; Jonathan Paley <jpaley AT fnal.gov>; Laura Fields <lfields2 AT nd.edu>; Marco Del Tutto <mdeltutt AT fnal.gov>
Cc: Mandy Kathleen Rominsky <rominsky AT fnal.gov>; Nathaniel J. Pastika <pastika AT fnal.gov>; Eugene E Schmidt Jr <jj AT fnal.gov>
Subject: FTBF scheduling update

 

Hello all,

 

Thank you all for submitting requests for the upcoming FTBF run.  I’m writing to provide an update on the scheduling process.  The accelerator complex is facing two technical challenges that will affect the upcoming beam year.  At this time we expect beam startup to be delayed from November and the run to be shortened but do not know how much.  We have not started building a schedule until more information is clear.

 

In early August there was a fire at the Kautz Road substation, badly damaging one of the 4 transformers that are used to power the Main Injector. Since that time, the Infrastructure Services (ISD) and Accelerator (AD) divisions have been hard at work to understand the condition of the lab’s remaining transformers and what the impact would be on the accelerator complex.  The latest news is that ISD believes that 4 transforms can be used (2 at the Master substation and 2 at the Kautz Rd substation), and calculations suggest that with those 4 transformers they can power the whole accelerator complex, including the Main Injector and Switchyard.  There is additional work to put the complex in this configuration and the current projection is to start running beam in the Booster in early November with MI and Switchyard to follow at an unknown scale.  It is likely to take longer to commission the beam lines in this configuration and tune up to deliver stable, quality beam.  The complex has not run in this configuration before and in dealing with this issue some summer shutdown work was deferred until next year, increasing the possibility of failures.  If the complex can run in this configuration, it will be possible to receive the standard switchyard slow spill.  

 

The second issues is that the set of MI heat exchangers that supply cooling to the LCW systems are now severely corroded.  They are inspected and cleaned every other year but not measured for the thickness of the walls. The heat exchangers are pressure vessels, and the wall thickness just recently were found to be less than what is required for the rated pressure.  The heat exchangers cannot operate without repair/replacement or change in the process/documentation and the pressure rating of the exchangers.  A vendor will be investigating next week to determine what path forward is possible and the timescale.

 

I will continue to provide updates as we know more about the situations.  I am happy to discuss further with anyone who has questions.  I’ve sent this out to the emails associated with schedule requests, please distribute among your teams.  At this time we do recommend exploring beam time at other locations as the beam time at FTBF will be reduced.  When we know more about the length of the run we will work with everyone on optimizing and prioritizing the available beam time.

 

Thanks,

Evan, Mandy, Joe, JJ

 

---

From: Evan D. Niner <edniner AT fnal.gov>
Sent: Friday, September 20, 2024 2:17 PM
To: Gnanvo Kondo <kagnanvo AT jlab.org>; Chris.Madrid AT ttu.edu <Chris.Madrid AT ttu.edu>; Corrado Gatto <gatto AT fnal.gov>; Kiselev, Alexander <ayk AT bnl.gov>; Miguel I Arratia Munoz <miguela AT ucr.edu>; Zhenyu Ye <yezhenyu AT lbl.gov>; Murtaza Safdari <murtazas AT fnal.gov>; Morand, Peter O. <pmorand AT exeter.edu>; christina.wenlu.wang AT cern.ch <christina.wenlu.wang AT cern.ch>; Irene Dutta <idutta AT fnal.gov>; cherry AT lsu.edu <cherry AT lsu.edu>; James H. Buckley <buckley AT wuphys.wustl.edu>; Mauro Dinardo <Mauro.Dinardo AT cern.ch>; Sudeshna Ganguly <sganguly AT fnal.gov>; Zhu, Junjie <junjie AT umich.edu>; Grace E. Cummings <gcumming AT fnal.gov>; Manoj Bhanudas Jadhav <mjadhav AT anl.gov>; Megan Elizabeth Connors <mconnors AT gsu.edu>; Koji Nakamura <Koji.Nakamura AT cern.ch>; Corrinne Elaine Mills <cmills10 AT uic.edu>; Wooyoung Jang <wyjang.physics AT gmail.com>; Yasar Onel <yasar-onel AT uiowa.edu>; theim AT lbl.gov <theim AT lbl.gov>; Vladimir P Nagaslaev <vnagasl AT fnal.gov>; Whitney R. Armstrong <warmstrong AT anl.gov>; Jonathan Paley <jpaley AT fnal.gov>; Laura Fields <lfields2 AT nd.edu>; Marco Del Tutto <mdeltutt AT fnal.gov>
Cc: Mandy Kathleen Rominsky <rominsky AT fnal.gov>; Nathaniel J. Pastika <pastika AT fnal.gov>; Eugene E Schmidt Jr <jj AT fnal.gov>
Subject: FTBF scheduling update

 

Hello all,

 

Thank you all for submitting requests for the upcoming FTBF run.  I’m writing to provide an update on the scheduling process.  The accelerator complex is facing two technical challenges that will affect the upcoming beam year.  At this time we expect beam startup to be delayed from November and the run to be shortened but do not know how much.  We have not started building a schedule until more information is clear.

 

In early August there was a fire at the Kautz Road substation, badly damaging one of the 4 transformers that are used to power the Main Injector. Since that time, the Infrastructure Services (ISD) and Accelerator (AD) divisions have been hard at work to understand the condition of the lab’s remaining transformers and what the impact would be on the accelerator complex.  The latest news is that ISD believes that 4 transforms can be used (2 at the Master substation and 2 at the Kautz Rd substation), and calculations suggest that with those 4 transformers they can power the whole accelerator complex, including the Main Injector and Switchyard.  There is additional work to put the complex in this configuration and the current projection is to start running beam in the Booster in early November with MI and Switchyard to follow at an unknown scale.  It is likely to take longer to commission the beam lines in this configuration and tune up to deliver stable, quality beam.  The complex has not run in this configuration before and in dealing with this issue some summer shutdown work was deferred until next year, increasing the possibility of failures.  If the complex can run in this configuration, it will be possible to receive the standard switchyard slow spill.  

 

The second issues is that the set of MI heat exchangers that supply cooling to the LCW systems are now severely corroded.  They are inspected and cleaned every other year but not measured for the thickness of the walls. The heat exchangers are pressure vessels, and the wall thickness just recently were found to be less than what is required for the rated pressure.  The heat exchangers cannot operate without repair/replacement or change in the process/documentation and the pressure rating of the exchangers.  A vendor will be investigating next week to determine what path forward is possible and the timescale.

 

I will continue to provide updates as we know more about the situations.  I am happy to discuss further with anyone who has questions.  I’ve sent this out to the emails associated with schedule requests, please distribute among your teams.  At this time we do recommend exploring beam time at other locations as the beam time at FTBF will be reduced.  When we know more about the length of the run we will work with everyone on optimizing and prioritizing the available beam time.

 

Thanks,

Evan, Mandy, Joe, JJ