Status and schedule for the H - source upgrade at HINS beam line

1. Status and schedule for the H- source upgrade at HINS beam line HINS Meson meeting January 5th, 2012 L. Prost(most inputs from Steve Hays & Alex Chen)

2. H- Source Status • Source reinstalled on Pre Acc test stand on 12/9/11 • Has been running mostly OK since • Several issues/failures had to be taken care along the way • HV stability better than the last run • May be because of changes we made to the extraction electrode (?) • Running at low duty factor (right now, 300 ms pulse at 1 Hz) is difficult (stability of the arc/plasma) because of the low temperature of the cathode (mainly) • There is only so much we can do with the knobs we have • Heaters, gas pressure, arc discharge power • Started emittance measurements yesterday • We are running with DC extractor • Greg is having difficulties with his pulser • I don’t think it will be ready to be tested on the Pre Acc test stand

3. H- move main tasks • Electrical • Remove cables • New gas valve controller installation • Installation of the higher capacitance (for the 50 kV PS) • Change polarity of PSs • Connect heaters to HRM • Install control cables and such • Remove filament PS • Remove leak valve system • Mechanical • Reference source (alignment) • Alignment as-found ? • Remove H+ source and stand • Mount and install new stand • New cover

4. H- move main tasks (cont’) • Mechanical (cont’) • Build new heater power supply system • Install new gas valve • Relocate vacuum pumps • Install H- source • Alignment • Other miscellaneous? • Assumes that the pulser won’t be ready • When ready to be installed, will need dedicated run time for commissioning

5. Time Estimates • Most of the tasks are sequential i.e. not much can be done in parallel • But some must or can be done before • Heater power supply system (Drew – 1 week) • PS, controllers, thermocouple… • We have everything • Fiducials for source alignment (Alignment group - ?) • Electrical (Steve’s estimate) • Two techs for 5 days + himself as needed • Mechanical (Alex’s estimate) • Two techs for 5 days + himself as needed (1 day) • Alignment after installation (1 day) • At face value, time in the cave: 11 days (~2 weeks) no overlap • A more realistic estimate would be 3 full weeks • Does not include any commissioning

6. 11-day possible schedule • Feb 1st, H- source to alignment • Depends on how much time needed for alignment • Simply need to be early enough • Feb 3rd, last H+ run • Feb 6th, start removing H+ source • Mostly electrical first (cables and such), then mechanical (source and stand out) • Feb 13th, new stand installed • Feb 17th, H- source installed • Includes vacuum connected (may be not pumped down) • Includes all electrical connections • Feb 20th, alignment • Feb 21st, start commissioning • HV => Plasma => Beam 11 days

7. More realistic (?) schedule • Feb 1st, H- source to alignment • Depends on how much time needed for alignment • Simply need to be early enough • Feb 3rd, last H+ run • Feb 6th, start removing H+ source • Mostly electrical first (cables and such), then mechanical (source and stand out) • Feb 16th, new stand installed • Feb 24th, H- source installed • Includes vacuum connected (may be not pumped down) • Includes all electrical connections • Feb 27th, alignment • Feb 28th, start commissioning • HV => Plasma => Beam 3 weeks

8. What’s next? • Official (?) goal (?) is to have 2.1 MeV beam with adequate parameters for testing the beam absorber by the middle of the summer(?) • If “6-cavity test” is not completed rapidly, what priority? • When/How do we decide to switch goals? • Is it even possible? • What kind of effort? • What would be a schedule that makes sense (for the beam absorber test to be useful)? • Obviously, I don’t have a plan (otherwise, it would be here) • Need to have a better grip on the current beamline before moving things around • Upgrade to H- will certainly not resolve all problems