1. Technical news:

· Planned power cuts have occurred in the last weeks. Maintenance of power boxes at ISOLDE was performed before Christmas.

· Currently there is no cooling water in the hall.

· Cleaning was done in the HT room. Both power supplies have been checked by Jan Schipper.

· The used targets will be moved out of ISOLDE on 11February, with the exception of 8 units, which will be reused or will act as spares.

· There is a major work on the cooling system for ISOLDE targets. One can see the crane from the control room and workers on top of the concrete mount over the target area.

· The balloons collecting the pumps exhaust through the year will be emptied next week.

· REX maintenance has started. The rf of the 7 gap did not show problems. The 9 gap will continue to work at a lower power and with fingers crossed next year. Discussions are ongoing to order a new power supply for the 9 gap for 2014 but this is expensive (400 KCHF).

· The geometrical alignment of ISCOOL was changed at the end of last year in order to facilitate a run with optical pumping by an axial laser beam in the trap. However no optical pumping was observed during the tests. Perhaps the reason is related to the alignment of the components inside. ISCOOL will be restored to its original position for next year.

· The radiation monitors will be tested next week.

· T1 and T2 pulses of the arrival of the proton beam will be provided by a new electronics box. If someone needs any other timing signal please contact Tim Giles, otherwise the other signals will no longer be available.

· A prototype beam gate providing the possibility of PC control will be installed. The old one remains as it is.

· Please, report if you remember any faulty beam-diagnostics tool from last year. This way it can get appropriate attention during the maintenance.

2.Physics and schedule:

· Magda is planning to distribute the beam time requests for 2012 this week. They should be returned by February 1st Proposals / addenda submitted for the Feb INTC meeting will also receive the forms and can make beam-time requests (under the assumption that their request for beam will be supported by the February INTC).

3.A.O.B.

· There is a positive feedback from the DG’s new-year’s presentation. He acknowledged the good work of ISOLDE and presented a very recent result from ISOLTRAP.

· Fixed target experiments including ISOLDE will run a full schedule in 2014. There will however be no post-accelerated beams due to the mounting of the HIE-ISOLDE Linac.

· Long shutdowns are being planned for 2017 and 2021.

· Public visits at CERN a generally encouraged. This might be a good argument for having a visitor room overlooking ISOLDE.

· We are encouraged to submit abstracts to EURORIB 2012.

· ISOLDE welcomes two new fellows: Susanne Kreim and Jan Kurcewicz.

· The deadline for students applying for the CERN summer-student program is Jan 25.

4. Seminars:

· Hinko Henry Stroke, New York University, will present “Bohr-Weisskopf revisited” on Jan 18.

· Philip Walker, University of Surrey, will present a series of lectures “The excitation and decay of nuclear isomers” in three parts on 6-8 Feb. Please, distribute the info.

· For more information please visit the ISOLDE - seminars page.

Minutes by DTY