1. Technical news:

· After being used for examining the proton beam at GPS last week the SEM grid target was transferred to the HRS station.

· The safety chain for the ISOLDE target and separator zones was reset on Friday. A tantalum target (#420) is installed on the GPS frontend in order to be used by the RILIS team to establish an ionization scheme for samarium.

· The optics needed for the RILIS lasers at HRS has been installed.

· The air circulation from HRS into the RILIS cabin has been prevented. This improved the laser stability and provides safer working conditions for their operators.

· A power cut has been simulated with the new PVSS vacuum system. The test is a success, 15 minutes after restoring the power the vacuum has been recovered automatically.

· The WITCH experiment receives beam from REX trap.

· The cathode of REX-EBIS is 'poisoned', thus causing extremely low emission at nominal operating temperature. It is not clear why this has happened. This problem needs to be solved before REX becomes operational.

2. A.O.B:

· Anne-Catherine Yvinec and Jeremie Herbreteau from ENSI Caen start working at ISOLTRAP for the next three months.

· The safety establishment at CERN is changing and all experiments including ISOLDE experiments must comply. A meeting was initiated by Christopher Griggs (PH DSO) and Bruno Pichler (Deputy PH DSO) in order to let us know about the changes that will follow in the next months. Before any beam time can be allocated to any particular proposal next year, all safety requirements have to be met, including the necessary paper work. The new rules will not be enforced this year for existing experiments. If you represent such an experiment, please, follow the steps:

- fill the ISIEC-formand send it to the ISOLDE coordinator before your experiment starts;

- fill the Blue posterand hang it at a prominent place near your experiment, so that the emergency services can locate it easily;

- pass the following visit by a safety officer, which will be done in the “old-fashion”;

- in the course of the next months prepare the safety file for your experiment. Of course this has to wait until a template or a clear example is provided by the safety authorities at CERN;

· Pekka Suominen presented the excellent “Ion-source development activities at ISOLDE”.

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