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J-PARC Project Newsletter
No.36, April 2009
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under construction
jointly by the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and
the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
NEW FISCAL YEAR STARTED
IAC, A-TAC, N-TAC, MUSAC, 50 GEV PAC HELD FROM FEBRUARY
TO MARCH
GRAND DESIGN FOR J-PARC
INAUGURATION FOR J-PARC
2. [Accelerator Division]
EXTRACTION OF 30 GEV PROTON BEAM TO HADRON BEAM DUMP
3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division]
THE FIRST BEAM EXTRACTED TO THE HADRON HALL AND THE
"FIRST-BEAM WORKSHOP AT THE J-PARC HADRON EXPERIMENTAL
HALL"
CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEUTRINO FACILITY
THE FIRST PRODUCTION OF NEUTRINOS
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
THE FIRST USER PROGRAM HAS BEEN CONDUCTED WITH A STABLE
OPERATION OF THE TARGET STATION FOR ABOUT 25 DAYS IN A
PERIOD FROM DEC. 23, 2008 TO FEB. 27, 2009.
THE PROPOSALS FOR THE USER PROGRAM IN THE FIRST
HALF OF 2009 WERE REVIEWED BY PROGRAM REVIEW COMMITTEES
OF NEUTRON AND MUON IN FEB. 2009
5. [Nuclear Transmutation Section]
THE ENDURANCE OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL
6. [Safety Division]
THE SAFETY INSPECTION OF NEUTRINO EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED BY NUSTEC
7. [Information System Division]
NEW SERVICES FOR J-PARC USERS HAVE STARTED
8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings]
9. [Editorial Note]
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1. [Overview] by Shoji NAGAMIYA
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NEW FISCAL YEAR STARTED
The new fiscal year started on April 1. This year is a special year
for us, since the Phase 1 Project of the entire J-PARC was completed
at the end of the previous fiscal year. In other words, the construction
of the neutrino facility was completed.
Facing a new phase of operation, though we are still struggling with
many accelerator elements to complete, the headquarter members
have been changed in the following way.
J-PARC Director: Shoji NAGAMIYA (unchanged)
J-PARC Deputy Director for KEK: Hitoshi KOBAYASHI
J-PARC Deputy Director for JAEA: Yujiro IKEDA
Namely, both Yoshishige YAMAZAKI (for KEK Deputy) and
Yukio OYAMA (for JAEA Deputy) have stepped down from their positions.
I would like to send my greatest thanks to these two.
The financial situation for this year will be as follows.
For the operational fund we shall have about 60 Oku Yen for JAEA and
65 Oku Yen for KEK. This will let us run for 110 days for the users
program. In addition, 43 Oku Yen was approved for the energy recovery
of the Linac (to 400 MeV), 5 Oku Yen for two additional neutron beam
lines (first year of the 3 years) and 5 Oku Yen for the K=1.1 beamline
for the hadron facility. An additional fund at the Government level is
under discussion.
IAC, A-TAC, N-TAC, MUSAC, 50GEV PAC HELD FROM FEBRUARY
TO MARCH
From the end of February to the beginning of March, many review
committees were held, anticipating the fact the IAC (International
Advisory Committee) was held on March 9 and 10. This time, although
all the committees congratulated the success of the J-PARC, the
main issue was to warrant the stability of the accelerator, since we
are facing many problems in RFQ, RF System, the Power Station, etc.
The IAC Report as well as other reports are about to be finalized.
GRAND DESIGN FOR J-PARC
The J-PARC Grand Design after the completion of Phase 1 is now
being published, although the final draft is still under discussion by the
communities. Professor Taku YAMANAKA at Osaka University is the
chair of this committee and presented their work at the IAC meeting
on March 10.
According to this report, the plan was separated into three phases,
the first 5 years, the second 5 years and beyond. The first 5 year
plan includes: 1) intensity growth of the main ring accelerator primarily
for neutrinos, 2) completion of the hadron beamlines which are not yet
fabricated, 3) construction of muon beamlines including ultra soft muon
beamline, etc. The detailed report is still under discussion and will be
published soon.
INAUGURATION FOR J-PARC
The J-PARC Inauguration Ceremony will be scheduled for July 6.
We invite all the related persons, including major people, foreign guests,
industries that contributed to us, and our participants. The total
number of guests will be over 1,000. If you are interested in joining
this inauguration, please write me directly.
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Ainosuke ANDO
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EXTRACTION OF 30 GEV PROTON BEAM TO HADRON BEAM DUMP
The 30 GeV proton beam in MR (50 GeV Synchrotron) was extracted
by the third order resonance (3Qx =67, Qx: horizontal tune of betatron
oscillation) to the Hadron beam dump at 19:35, Jan. 25, 2009. This is
the first trial of slow extraction before using the beam de-bunching
techniques to obtain coasting beam and the beam spill feedback which
will be installed this summer. Because the current stability of
the power supplies of main magnets was (1.0 ~ 3.0)E-4, the beam
extracted suddenly when Qx reached near 67/3 due to the tune ripple
caused by the current ripples. The improvement toward the current
stability in ppm order is essential for real slow extraction. The
extraction efficiency was roughly estimated as 90 %. The beam loss
monitors were calibrated by scraping the beam with the local bump near
the extraction septa. The output voltage is almost linear to the
number of the lost protons. Taking into account the residual radiation
level measured after the beam operation, the guideline that the beam
loss at local area must be less than 20 W to keep the residual
radiation level less than 1 mSv/h for the safe maintenance are well
confirmed. The loss information gave the extraction efficiency as
about 90 %, which was confirmed by the comparison with the beam
current monitor in the Hadron beam line.
After almost continuous operation for more than one year,
the many troubles exposed the fragile elements of the accelerator
systems. The most serious problems are the discharge of the RFQ
(Radio Frequency Quadrupole linac), buckling or stress deformation
of MA (magnetic alloy) cores for the RF cavities of RCS (3 GeV
Synchrotron) and the breakdown of the IEGT's (Injection Enhanced
Gate Transistor) of the power supply for one family of MR quadrupole
magnets.
The RFQ problem, which was already reported in the previous
letter, limited not only the beam power but also the schedule in the
beam operation since last September. The backup machine is now in
design and will be ordered to companies for construction. The
installation of this new RFQ is planned to be done in the summer,
2010, the conditioning of the present RFQ has been carefully and
frequently performed to provide beams for the 20 kW RCS output at
least until the installation of the backup.
The IEGT breakdown is caused by the surge voltage higher than
4.5 kV at the turn-off timing of not only the corresponding IEGT but
also the others. This should be overcome by the improvement of the
installed protection circuit (the work will take more than one month),
and solutions are not clearly found at present, so that
phenomenological treatments have been tried such as the change of
pulse width of the gate and the reduction of the primary line voltage.
Some of them seem effective before the improvement of the
protection circuit, which is scheduled for this summer.
The routine work of impedance monitoring found the significant
reduction at the tank #6 in the seventh cavity of RCS. The stress
deformation was supposed from the R&D experience and then the
cavity was dismantled. The deformations at the center were found in
twelve cores out of the total eighteen. There is no way to release
stresses due to thermal cycle because cores are made by winding.
Fortunately the trouble of only one core resulted in the impedance
reduction, which was replaced with a spare. The essential
improvements such as introducing radial cut, new inventions in
winding process, or material selection of molding are now in discussion.
For the moment spares will be prepared because the present cores
are treated as consumables. If a significant impedance reduction is
found and the gap short operation for the corresponding tank is not
allowable to keep the enough acceleration voltage, the cores will be
replaced.
The budget for the energy upgrade to 400 MeV of linac was
approved by the end of fiscal year 2008. The ACS (Annular Coupling
Structure) linac has been in R&D phase for these several years, and
there is almost no fatal problem in technology. But it is very tight in
cost and schedule. Anyway a new linac will be installed at the summer,
2012 at the latest.
The eighth A-TAC (Accelerator Technological Advisory Committee)
was held from 5th to 7th in this March. There were many encouraging
comments especially about the cure of the present RFQ and the ACS
linac.
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3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division]
by Shinya SAWADA, Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO
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THE FIRST BEAM EXTRACTED TO THE HADRON HALL AND THE
"FIRST-BEAM WORKSHOP AT THE J-PARC HADRON
EXPERIMENTAL HALL" (by Shinya SAWADA)
As was announced by a press release and was also informed by
a Special Issue of the Newsletter, the first proton beam was
successfully accelerated to 30 GeV in the 50 GeV synchrotron
(MR), extracted, and transported to the beam dump of the Hadron
Hall on January 27th. On that day, both the accelerator and the
hadron teams started an attempt to slow-extract a proton beam
for the first time, and only after a few hours of the effort,
a proton beam was successfully observed at the beam dump with
a monitor at 19:35. After a scheduled maintenance of the accelerator,
on February 10th, the production target, T1, was inserted into the
proton beam to produce secondary beams. The first secondary
beam was observed by the E15/E17 experiment team, headed by
Prof. Ryugo HAYANO (Tokyo) and Prof. Masahiko IWASAKI (RIKEN),
at the K1.8BR beamline.
The "First-Beam Workshop at the J-PARC Hadron Experimental
Hall" was held at the Ibaraki Quantum Beam Research Center,
located just next to the J-PARC site, on March 25th and 26th.
About 100 researchers attended the meeting. They discussed reports
on the first beam from the accelerator team, the hadron beamline
team, and the E15/E17 team, as well as the reports by the
experimental groups who expect to use the beams in this fall at
the K1.8 beamline and the KL beamline. In addition, they were
encouraged by the talks from noted theorists, Prof. Tetsuo HATSUDA
and Prof. Yasuhiro OKADA, hearing physics opportunities in the
Hadron Hall. In the afternoon of March 26th, a tour
to the Hadron Hall and a general assembly of the Hadron Hall
Users Association (HUA) also took place.
We are very much excited on the beginning of the new era with
the Hadron Hall.
CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEUTRINO FACILITY
(by Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO)
Installation of components in the neutrino beam line is finished.
Many tests and inspections are being carried out for the neutrino
beam commissioning in April and May.
The superconducting magnet system is being tested from January
and the main magnet tests such as 48 hours operation with 30 GeV
nominal operation current 4400A and excitation test up to 5000A were
successfully completed. Inspection of the cryogenic system by the
local government was done in March and the system is officially
approved.
The most downstream part of neutrino beam line including
the pit of BD (Beam Dump) and MUMON (Muon Monitor) was
completed in March, and then the government inspection of TS
(Target Station) and NU3 for radiation shield, interlock (Personal
Protection System) and water/air discharge equipment was carried
out and it passed successfully.
The first horn excitation test was performed successfully after
installation. The second and third horn will be installed after the first
neutrino beam commissioning in April and May.
The first module of the on-axis neutrino detector (INGRID) was
Installed in NM (Neutrino Monitor building) and the INGRID DAQ (Data
Acquisition) system is being carried out with connection to the neutrino
beam line control/DAQ system which gives beam information to
INGRID DAQ system.
The neutrino beam commissioning in April and May aims at
the transportation of proton beam to the target and measurement
of muons from decay pions produced at the target.
THE FIRST PRODUCTION OF NEUTRINOS
As was already informed by a special issue of the newsletter, on
April 23, 2009, during editing this newsletter, the first beam commissioning
of the neutrino beam line was started. At 19:09(JST), the first neutrino
beam production is confirmed by observing muons by a muon monitor
system installed at the most downstream of the neutrino beam line of
J-PARC.
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Yujiro IKEDA
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THE FIRST USER PROGRAM HAS BEEN CONDUCTED WITH A
STABLE OPERATION OF THE TARGET STATION FOR ABOUT
25 DAYS IN A PERIOD FROM DEC.23, 2008 TO FEB 27, 2009.
THE PROPOSALS FOR THE USER PROGRAM IN THE
FIRST HALF OF 2009 WERE REVIEWED BY PROGRAM REVIEW
COMMITTEES OF NEUTRON AND MUON IN FEB. 2009.
1. Neutron Source and Proton Beam Transport
The proton beam transport line, mercury target and ancillary
systems had been stably operated for MLF user programs, except
for the hydrogen pump to supply super critical hydrogen into the
moderators. At the end of the Run in January, the hydrogen pumps
have exhibited the problems: that is, unexpected vibrations at rotors of
the pumps were observed. Reason of the vibration is under
investigation. Neutronic performance data, i.e., spectrum, intensity and
pulse shapes, have been measured for the three types of moderators.
The measured data agreed well with design values with suggesting
adequacy of neutronics design of JSNS. A cutting machine for irradiated
components was moved from the hot cell to the cold area in order to
perform cold tests for its future modification. As for R&D on pressure
wave mitigation technology, SNS team visited to carry out the off-beam
cavitation damage tests by using MIMTM mercury loop.
2. Neutron Science
User's program and commissioning were carried out under the
beam power of about 20 kW in February, at the 11 instruments of
4SEASONS (BL01), iBIX (BL03), NNRI (BL04), NOP (BL05),
S-HRPD (BL08), NOBORU (BL10), HRC (BL12), H-REF (BL16),
TAKUMI (BL19), iMATERIA (BL20), and NOVA (BL21).
Full-scale construction of Biomolecular Dynamics Spectrometer,
DNA (BL02) and Smaller-Angle Scattering Instrument, TAIKAN (BL15)
renamed from HI-SANS was approved. Neutron guide tubes to be
installed in their biological shields have been already fabricated. The
high-pressure neutron diffractometer was decided to be constructed
at the BL11 installed on a decoupled moderator.
The International Workshop on Nanostructural Analysis with
Wide-q Data was held in January 27, 2009 in Tokai for discussing
analysis technique of wide-q data to be obtained by TAIKAN. The
International Advisory Committee on the Smaller-Angle Neutron
Scattering Instrument of J-PARC was held in January 28-29, 2009
in Tokai for reviewing the project of TAIKAN.
The 7th Neutron Technical Advisory Committee (N-TAC-7) was
held in March 5-6, 2009 in Tokai. Current status of the development
of neutron instruments and devices, management of experimental
halls, system for user support, international activities and
collaborations, and future plans were presented by members of MLF
and then reviewed by the committee. The committee reported
valuable recommendations such as an increase of staff to be
consistent with international best practice.
3. Neutron Optics and beam control
A new photon-counting two-dimensional detector system using
scintillator sheets and wavelength-shifting (WLS) fiber arrays has
been delivered for a single-crystal neutron diffractometer for
biological and chemical crystallography named "iBIX".
An ENGIN-X-type linear scintillation neutron detector system has
been fabricated for the engineering materials diffractometer "TAKUMI".
4. Muon Science
In January, 2009, a new cabin which is equipped with two sets of
DAQ electronics systems and user's desks was constructed forrunning
the user's programs. And in the end of January, there started several
user's programs. The Saitama-University /JAEA group identified an
anti-ferromagnetic state below 20K in the (BEDT-TTF)2 IBrCl
compound, an organic superconductor. The KEK group obtained
results on Iron-Oxypnictide Superconductors and the Toyota group
obtained new results on lithium diffusion.
Muon Science Advisory Committee (MUSAC VII) was held at
TOKAI on March 6 and 7th 2009 just as the first muon beam user
period was ending successfully. The main overall recommendation was
that Ultra Slow Muon beams is the future for this facility and the group
should position itself to take advantage of new funding opportunities
being pursued by users while maintaining a strong scientific vision.
The Program Review Committees of both neutron and muon user
programs were held to select proposals to be allocated with beam time
in the campaign of the first half in 2009 JFY. About 50 proposals were
accepted to be performed in MLF.
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5. [Nuclear Transmutation Section] by Kenji KIKUCHI
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THE ENDURANCE OF AUSTENITIC STAINLESS STEEL
High-energy proton irradiation effect on mechanical strength of
austenitic stainless steel has been investigated at Tokai hot laboratory
facilities under the research frame of STIP/PSI program. Hardening and
reduction of ductility were saturated around 10 dpa/800appmHe, and
maintained almost the same property by 19 dpa/1600appmHe. Fracture
surface showed ductile manner in those specimens but not intergranular
feature. Tiny bubbles with a size of 2-3nm existed homogeneously as
well as dislocation density was not clearly changed in the materials.
There is no data over 19dpa currently.
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6. [Safety Division]
by Minoru TAKASAKI, Taichi MIURA and Hiroshi NAKASHIMA
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THE SAFETY INSPECTION OF NEUTRINO EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY
SUCCESSFULLY CONDUCTED BY NUSTEC
The inspection of the Neutrino Experimental Facility before the
operation was conducted on March 27, 2009, by the Nuclear Safety
Technology Center (NUSTEC): the inspection items were working
conditions of emergency and interlock signals, shielding structures
and radiation signs posted around the radiation controlled areas. This
was the last facility in J-PARC to get the inspection for the beam
operation. In this inspection, the fast extraction part of 50 GeV
proton synchrotron (MR) ring and the arc line for the superconducting
magnets were included. The designed energy and power were 30 GeV
and 1.2kW, respectively. The first beam to the Neutrino Facility is
expected to be in the beginning of April for the test operation and
the next inspection during the operation with the beam intensity of
about 10 to 20 % of the design value is scheduled to be in the
second half of May.
On January 13, shielding structures of Nuclear and Particle Physics
Facility (HD) were inspected by NUSTEC: other items of this facility
were inspected on December 1, 2008. Also, the secondary beam lines
of the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) were inspected to
check shielding structures and interlocks. After the testing operation of
these facilities, the inspections during operation of HD, MR, and MLF
were conducted successfully on February 19 with about 10% beam
operation of the design values.
The 6th Radiation Safety Committee of J-PARC (the 12th Safety
Deliberative Committee on Radiation Safety of J-PARC) met on March
26, 2009, to discuss following items: (1) completion reports of J-PARC
facilities; (2) the internal rules radiation protection of J-PARC and
its details; (3) the report from Expert Committee of J-PARC on the
Interlock System. The seminar for the J-PARC safety and health was
held on February 26 with 191 participants. Other staff who missed the
seminar watched the video program. The J-PARC Center Safety and
Health Committee met on March 17.
An educational video about the general safety for workers from
companies was completed: the video for experimental users is in the
process of production according to the video for workers. In the next
step, the English version is under consideration.
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7. [Information Sytem Division] by Atsushi MANABE
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NEW SERVICES FOR J-PARC USERS HAVE STARTED
Guest network is a wireless LAN service for short-term visitors
available in almost all J-PARC buildings since last fall. Soon after their
arrival at J-PARC, visitors can connect to internet without any prior
registration.
Users Office plans to have a one-stop Web portal site where users can
do almost all required registration and application procedure on line.
As a first step, 'Proposal submission system' (https://gamusha1.j-parc.jp/)
and 'User support system' (https://mercury.j-parc.jp/usjparc/) were
started since last May and December.
Proposal submission system gives public advertisements of J-PARC
experiments and accepts those proposal submissions. In User support
system, users can do registrations, applications and reservations needed
to stay and carry out experiments in J-PARC. As the next step, Proposal
Review System to review submitted proposals is under development.
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8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings]
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The J-PARC Ceremony for the completion of the project, July 6 in
Tokyo
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9. [Editorial Note]
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Editorial Board:
Masatoshi ARAI (chair): masatoshi.arai@j-parc.jp
Yujiro IKEDA: ikeda.yujiro@jaea.go.jp
Nobuo OUCHI: ouchi.nobuo@jaea.go.jp
Shinya SAWADA: shinya.sawada@kek.jp
Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO: toshifumi.tsukamoto@kek.jp
English Editor: Dick MISCHKE mischke@triumf.ca
Secretary: Chikako KAIBARA kaibara.chikako@jaea.go.jp
++++++++++++++++End of Letter+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++