Minutes from the ISOLDE Physics Group meeting on March 11^th, 2015

No comments to the minutes of the PG meeting held last week.

Technical news

• The water panel removed from the top of the RILIS cabin got moved to the top of the GPS water station.
  
  • Barriers will be installed on top of the concrete blocks to avoid accidents.
  • Performance tests will be done during the next target change, Wednesday/Thursday.
• One of the HV modulators that lower the HV during proton impact was faulty and got replaced.
• The gas injection system for plasma sources is  currently not working, probably due to software problems. It will be repaired for ISCOOL tests and the separator course in 3 weeks.
• Separators:
  
  • One of the GPS turbo pump fans was replaced.
  • The GPS rf correction for LIST targets  will be tested next week.
  • The GPS yearly change of the extraction electrode was done 2 days ago. The target coupling piston was changed on Tuesday.
  • One of the HRS turbo pumps is broken. It will be exchanged with one of the NICOLE or TAS beamline pumps. A  new pump will be installed at the beamline once it is delivered.
  • HRS magnet software controls are being tested for self-recovery during hardware stalls.
  • The power supplies for the magnets and ion optics elements are gradually being turned on.

• ISCOOL:
  
  • The software controls are causing crashes of the RF injection system.
• HRS FC490 Faraday cup, behind the first magnet, has not been installed yet due to missing pieces. It will be installed before the startup.
• The vacuum interlock on VITO power supplies is being installed.
• REX: The water circuit for the new 9-gap resonator power supply is finished.
• RILIS: the target with the power-meter showed good laser transmission to the HRS.
• The work to transport the cable signals to B508 started Tuesday. It will affect several sections of the hall at different times, so secure delicate equipment and try to be present in the hall.

Safety

• The keys for the radioactive sources have been separated in two holders in the Traka box, beta/gamma (key # 7) and alpha (key # 20) – the latter with limited access. In order to use open alpha sources one needs to contact Alexander Dorsival.
• The tourniquet for ISOLDE Jura side access is not yet active.
• The group leader reminds the group to obtain the safety clearance for experiments before the start of experiment run, including the rooms in b508

Summer students

• 10 of  members-state students recommended by ISOLDE users passed the 1^st selection state. 18 member-state students mentioned ISOLDE in their applications.
• Please send an email to Laura Grob informing if your summer student project has been selected for the member-state selection round.

Schedule

• The schedule until June is finalized and has been sent to the ISOLDE mailing  list and is now online: http://isolde.web.cern.ch/isolde-schedule
• The separator course has been moved to the week after Easter – with all places taken by the users subscribed for the original date . A second (shorter) course will be given later for in-house people.

AOB

-The group leader asks for contributions to the ISOLDE newsletter. Deadline March 15^th.

-The next meeting will take place at 14:00 Wednesday next week (18^th March 2015) followed by a seminar by Stefanos Paschalis (https://indico.cern.ch/event/379226/ )

Minutes taken by MMF