Tuesday - November 13, 2007
SLAC Today is available online at:
http://today.slac.stanford.edu
In this issue:
New Instrument to Help Catch Electron Clouds
Safety Today: Electrical Safety Training Improvements
Photo of the Day: SC07
SLAC Giving Campaigns Ramp Up This Week
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Tuesday - November 13, 2007 |
New Instrument to Help Catch Electron Clouds
Mauro Pivi and Frank Cooper hold one of the analyzers that will help them understand electron clouds.
The International Linear Collider (ILC) will probe some of the deepest mysteries of the universe, but before that can happen, SLAC scientists must solve the puzzle of how to make the ILC run best. ILC Accelerator Physicist Mauro Pivi, along with collaborators from Surface and Materials Science (SMS), PEP-II Accelerator Systems, Mechanical Fabrication and Power Conversion departments, are tackling an important piece of that puzzle—avoiding pesky "electron clouds," which could disrupt beam bunches in the ILC positron Damping Ring (DR). Electron clouds form and grow in beamlines with positively charged beams. Photons are released by the charged particles as they are turned by the bending magnets. The photons strike the vacuum walls of the beamline, knocking loose electrons, which can again strike the walls, creating more electrons. The electron cloud is trapped by the positron beam in the DR. Earlier this year, the collaboration investigated the behavior of electron clouds outside the bending magnets, in the PEP-II Low Energy Ring (LER). In 2008, they will investigate electron cloud behavior within magnetic fields. In the upcoming electron cloud experiment, a chicane of magnets will subject the cloud to the same magnetic field as a DR bending magnet, while returning the positrons to the correct beam path after passage. Beam chambers instrumented with new analyzers to "sample" the energy and spatial location of the electrons in the cloud will be installed in the LER. Read more... |
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Electrical Safety Training Improvements
On October 11th, 2004, there was a terrible electrical accident at SLAC that resulted in a major investigation by the Department of Energy (DOE) and effectively shut the lab down for six months. New training requirements to reduce the risk of electrical accidents were quickly put into place and two courses became required for almost everyone working at SLAC: General Electrical Safety (Course #239) and Electrical Safety for Research and Development (Course #251). Many of you who were here at that time remember sitting through hours of electrical training lectures. When we launched Course 239 it was 2-1/2 hours long; Course 251 was 7 hours long. The Environmental, Safety and Health (ES&H) division is continuing in its efforts to improve these courses by making them more convenient to take, more relevant to work performed at SLAC, and more concise, all while still conveying critical safety information. To that end we would like to announce new initiatives designed to improve the training experience. As of October 30th, General Electrical Safety (Course 239) has been moved to the SkillSoft web-based training portal. This allows lab employees and users to take the course from any computer with an internet connection. It is compatible with all the major platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux. Data will automatically be transferred nightly to our database, quickly updating training records. Progress through the course is also bookmarked, which means it's possible to leave the course and later return to the training where you left off. Additionally, there is now a short test at the end of the training; a score of 80% is required to pass. ES&H is also developing an improved version of Course 251 that reduces the length from 7 hours to 2-1/2 hours. In addition, the course will focus more on SLAC-specific conditions and hazards. This course is planned to be released on our SkillSoft web training portal on April 1, 2008, with a "test out" or "challenge" option for refresher training. While this course is being revised, we have granted a six-month extension to those requiring refresher training for Course 251. This will allow ES&H to deploy the new course before most trainees come due. The ES&H division hopes that you will find these changes to be a big improvement over your past experience with these trainings. If you have any questions about these changes or electrical safety training, you can contact SLAC Electrical Safety Officer Perry Anthony or contact esh-training@slac.stanford.edu. |
Photo of the Day: SC07
At SC07, the premier international conference on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, SLAC representatives have set up a multi-panel display station, which opened to viewers yesterday. The screens feature animations prepared by researchers at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology to demonstrate how computing is used to achieve key scientific goals of the laboratory. SLAC Giving Campaigns Ramp Up This Week
This year, SLAC users and staff are also invited to participate in a Virtual Food Drive. Just visit the virtual harvest website to see how you can participate. If you choose to donate this way, be sure to put our special ID #47748 on your check.
Barrel Locations: For more information on the Second Harvest Food Drive, please contact Barbara Mason (x4130) or Roz Pennacchi (x3665). Donated coats and blankets will also be collected in separate boxes that will soon appear in the lobbies of buildings 40, 41, 48, 50 and 51. A local mission takes them to the streets of San Jose and distributes them via a local shelter to the needy and homeless. With this drive, items are given directly to the people who need them most. For more information on the SLAC Blanket and Coat Drive, please contact Thanh Ly (x4496). |
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As part of SLAC's Holiday Celebration, barrels were rolled
out this week for the Second Harvest Food Drive, which provides food for people in need from Gilroy to South San Francisco and from the coast to the bay. Placing canned food in these barrels is a great way to share your good fortune with the less fortunate. The Food Bank has been especially hard hit recently because of the fires in Southern California, and can use all the help we can give.