CLASSE NEWS | 6 Apr 2020
While not running the machine, the operations group is engaged in a wide variety of tasks that are compatible with working from home. Some of the projects include: reworking the control system's connection interface, a new program for implementing CHESS position corrections, analyzing the survey reference system, planning the next generation of CESR beam position monitors, continuing to analyze machine studies data taken in the previous running period, simulating CESR injection conditions, designing magnet lattices for improved running conditions, planning future machine studies experiments to meet the needs of CHESS and other lab projects, and working on improving the documentation.
The CESR operations group wishes you all good health and we look forward to seeing you at the lab on the other side of this COVID-19 crisis.
-Mike Forster
Director of CESR Operations
CESR Status During COVID-19
The accelerator has been put into its longer shutdown state. This involves following a several page procedure that puts accelerator equipment into the safest and most maintainable state possible. Jerry Codner, Dragana Jusic and the CESR operators worked through this procedure making sure all steps are still relevant for our new CHESS-U configuration while making additions as necessary. The result is all vacuum is maintained and isolated as much as possible with gate valves, and magnet, gun, and RF power supplies are turned off in a controlled manner. This type of shutdown is not unusual for the accelerator and depending on the downtime activities, between two and seven days are allotted for recovery of stored CESR beam. CESR operators are considered essential personnel by the university and continue to staff around the clock since system failures at the lab can have very severe and expensive consequences. CESR operators are trained to respond to hundreds of types of alarms and are diligently working to protect the investments of time and effort that they and we have all put into lab over several decades. We are minimizing the time operators are spending in the control room itself to reduce common area exposure and to ensure good physical distancing practices. If you are in the lab for any reason, please respect the operators who are working at the lab through this difficult time by staying out of the control room and maintaining good hygiene when touching common surfaces.
Although CESR has entered a shutdown state, CESR operators continue to monitor the system.
Director of CESR Operations