=============================================================== J-PARC Project Newsletter No. 38, Nov. 2009 Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under operation jointly by the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html =============================================================== Hot news from J-PARC: We have started a 120kW-operation since 10 November after serious improvements on the RFQ linac as described below. This is a big step for us from the 20kW-operation in the previous stages. The accelerators are working successfully with higher reliability now. === HEADLINES AND CONTENTS 1. [Overview] LODGING WILL BE CONSTRUCTED BY KEK OPEN HOUSE FOR J-PARC ACCELERATOR REVIEW WAS CONDUCTED FEE FOR PROPRIETARY EXPERIMENTS 2. [Accelerator Division] BEAM COMMISSIONING RESTARTED WITH STEADY IMPROVEMENT OF RFQ (RADIO-FREQUENCY QUADRUPOLE) LINAC THE IMPREGNATED RESIN IS THE MAIN REASON FOR BUCKLING OF MA (MAGNETIC ALLOY) CORE FOR RF CAVITIES THE REPETITION CYCLE TIME OF MR (50-GeV Synchrotron) WAS SHORTENED TO 3.52 SEC 3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division] BEAMLINE AND DETECTOR INSTALLATION IS MAKING PROGRESS IN THE HADRON HALL STATUS OF NEUTRINO FACILITY 4. [Materials and Life Science Division] 5. [Exotic Nuclear Science Group] THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW COMMITTEE WAS HELD FOR A NEW EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSED BY RNB GROUP STRUCTURE OF 11Be WAS STUDIED BY USING 9Li RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR BEAMS AT TOKAI RADIOACTIVE ION ACCELERATOR COMPLEX (TRIAC) SELF-DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS IN ELECTROLYTE FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERY WERE DIRECTLY MEASURED AT TRIAC 6. [Nuclear Transmutation Section] NEEDS OF R&D FACILITIES IN NUCLEAR SCIENCE 7. [Safety Division] APPLICATION FOR OPERATION LICENCES WERE SUBMITTED TO MEXT 8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings] 9. [Editorial Note] ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. [Overview] by Shoji NAGAMIYA ----------------------------------------------------------- LOGDING WILL BE CONSTRUCTED BY KEK For a long time, we have requested "lodging" for users. Very recently KEK decided to construct 52 rooms for users on the site of the Ibaraki Quantum Beam Research Center, where the Users Office and office space for users are currently located. The anticipated completion of this lodging will be sometime near the end of 2010 or, at the latest, the beginning of 2011. We have also requested construction of a hotel by Tokai Village. We were told that the effort to construct a new hotel will still continue, even if the lodging is constructed by KEK. OPEN HOUSE FOR J-PARC On August 1 we had an open house for J-PARC. This year, the open house was hosted by both J-PARC and Tokai Research Center. We had 4600 visitors among which 3700 were J-PARC visitors. Last year we had 2600 visitors for the J-PARC, so the number increased substantially this year. We shall have an open house once a year in coming years. ACCELERATOR REVIEW WAS CONDUCTED On July 29 an accelerator review was conducted (chair is Professor Oide from KEK). This time, the main purposes of the review are on 1) technical feasibility of approaching 1 MW, 2) financial constraints to achieve it, and 3) the best strategy for the future. Based on this review, the next stage is to discuss with the user communities if the current strategy presented by the accelerator group is agreeable to the communities. I will report the results of these discussions in the next issue of the Newsletter. FEE FOR PROPRIETARY EXPERIMENTS Since last December the beam time has been open for neutron users. Recently, an industrial usage started to come, though we have not yet settled how much the actual charge is for proprietary experiments without any publications. The Government started to agree with the fee which is comparable to SPring-8. For any work for which the results are published, the beam time charge is free at J-PARC. ------------------------------------------------------------- 2. [Accelerator Division] by Ainosuke ANDO ------------------------------------------------------------- BEAM COMMISSIONING RESTARTED WITH STEADY IMPROVEMENT OF RFQ (RADIO-FREQUENCY QUADRUPOLE) LINAC Beam Commissioning restarted on October 1 after the summer shutdown for the maintenance of the accelerators and the improvement of the RFQ linac. In the improvement, two cryopumps of 4000 L/s each and two SIP's (Sputtering Ion Pumps) of 800 and 400 L/s were added to the existing evacuation-pumping system, and a mass separator to obtain clear information of outgassing was installed. An additional TMP (Turbo Molecular Pump) of 500 L/s was also installed in the LEBT (Low Energy Beam Transport between the ion source and the RFQ), which was replaced by a new one with orifices at both ends to reduce the unnecessary flow of H- ions and hydrogen. The operation of RCS (3-GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron) has been restarted with the LINAC beam at first of 5 mA in peak current and 0.1 msec pulse width to ensure the stable beam output of 20 kW from RCS in October. In the next stage, the pulse width will be expanded to 0.5 msec for 100 kW of RCS, and then the peak current will be raised to 15 mA for 300 kW of RCS. The demonstrated operation with the RCS beam output of 200 kW in 70 seconds and equivalent 310 kW in one shot in September 2008 will be routine if there are no troubles in hardware and the beam loss issues are solved. THE IMPREGNATED RESIN IS THE MAIN REASON FOR BUCKLING OF MA (MAGNETIC ALLOY) CORE FOR RF CAVITIES Buckling or stress deformation has been found in many MA cores for the RF cavities of RCS as reported in Newsletter #36. Investigation for the correlation between the damaged cores and their manufacturing processes clarifies that the existence of the impregnated resin, of which the coefficient of linear expansion is larger than that of the MA alloy by about 8 times, prevents any room for expansion of MA alloy ribbons. Although the impregnation of the resin with light viscosity was adopted in R&D to make a core more rigid, the original process without impregnation is re-adopted to restore only the original purpose. THE REPETITION CYCLE TIME OF MR (50-GeV Synchrotron) WAS SHORTENED TO 3.52 SEC As the improvement of the power supplies for the main magnets (bending and quadrupole magnets) resulted in the shorter rise and fall time (still not enough for the design values), the cycle time of MR is shortened to 3.52 sec for the FX mode (Fast Extraction for the neutrino target). MR is operated in the two modes of FX and SX (Slow Extraction for the hadron target) from October. In the SX mode, the cycle time is still 6 sec with the 30-GeV flat-top of 2 ‾ 3 sec; enough for favorite beam manipulation or gymnastics. ----------------------------------------------------------- 3. [Nuclear and Particle Physics Division] by Toshiyuki TAKAHASHI and Hiroaki WATANABE by Masahiro SHIBATA, Yoshiaki YAMADA and Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO ----------------------------------------------------------- BEAMLINE AND DETECTOR INSTALLATION IS MAKING PROGRESS IN THE HADRON HALL Preceding the further commissioning of the accelerator MR and the eventual slow beam delivery to the Hadron Hall in this autumn, the installation of beamlines is making progress. Following the completion of K1.8BR in January 2009, the K1.8 beamline will be completed soon as the extension of K1.8BR. K1.8 delivers separated charged meson beams up to 2.0 GeV/c, at which primarily hypernuclear spectroscopy will be performed. In particular, the study of the double strangeness system will be a topic in Day-1 experiments. The beamline has already been tested for all the magnets and equipped with a second electrostatic separator in the extended section. In the experimental area the high-resolution Superconducting Kaon Spectrometer (SKS) is now being set up. The magnet had already been moved from KEK-PS with some modifications in the cryogenic system. The magnet has been successfully cooled down and excited. Detector mounting is also ongoing by the user group. On the other side of the primary beamline, the construction of the neutral kaon line KL has been also finished. The beamline consists of two sets of movable collimators and a sweeping magnet between them and should deliver a K_L beam with very suppressed halo-neutron background. The E14 KOTO experiment (the rare decay experiment KL-> pi0nu nu-bar) will be performed with an international collaboration. In this autumn, the beam survey is scheduled, in terms of the K_L yield measurement as well as the beam quality study. STATUS OF NEUTRINO FACILITY The primary proton beam line of the neutrino facility has four types of proton beam monitors, namely intensity, position, profile and beam loss monitors. Five CTs (Current Transformers) are installed as intensity monitors. 2% precision was achieved in the previous commissioning. Twenty one ESMs (ElectroStatic Monitors) are installed to measure beam position. Present typical resolution is 0.6 mm and we are working to improve the resolution by understanding the background to the signal. Nineteen SSEMs (Segmented Secondary Emission monitors) are installed as profile monitors. Obtained resolution is 0.2 mm for position and width. Fifty BLMs (Beam Loss Monitors) are placed around the beam line. No significant beam loss was observed in the previous commissioning except for beam loss from foils of the SSEMs. This indicates that the total beam loss was less than 0.1 percent. In the summer shutdown, ESM and SSEM re-alignment work was carried out and software was upgraded to deal with multi-bunch beam in addition to analysis of obtained data. Now we are ready for beam commissioning from October. For the beam run with higher beam power in Autumn, the second and third horns were installed into the Helium vessel on July 10th and August 6th, respectively. Then, simultaneous test operation with 1st, 2nd and 3rd horns successfully finished in September. The helium vessel is now under an evacuation test, and will be filled with 1500m3 of helium gas soon. The Autumn beam run will start after the final test operation of horns in He gas. The installation work of the T2K near detectors is ongoing at the NM (Neutrino Monitor) building. A neutrino beam monitor, INGRID (Interactive Neutrino GRID detectors), was successfully installed in August. The commissioning and calibration of INGRID is being carried out to be ready for the neutrino beam in October. As a part of the off-axis neutrino detectors, the P0D(Pi-zero Detector), the FGD (Fine Grained Detector), and the DSECAL (DownStream Electromagnetic CALorimeter) were tested on surface and were installed in the detector support structure, called BASKET. Two TPC (Time Projection Chamber) modules will be shortly installed this October. The work of cabling and piping is being carried out, and the commissioning of the detectors will follow. The T2K off-axis neutrino detector is scheduled to be ready for operation in December. ----------------------------------------------------------- 4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Yujiro IKEDA ----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Neutron Source In the summer maintenance period, annual voluntary inspection of the cryogenic hydrogen system was completed successfully. A vibration measuring system for the hydrogen circulation pump was installed to evaluate abnormal pump rotating conditions. Some remote-controlled cameras in the hot cell were modified to move on rails for better visibility in replacement work of activated components such as moderators. The tunnel of the proton beam transport line was surveyed and the uneven subsidence was found to be a maximum of 1 mm for the last year. The magnets and the beam monitors were realigned in this summer shutdown period with the accuracy better than 0.1 mm. The fabrication of the spare of target vessel was continued to fix the safety hull on the mercury vessel. As for R&D on the pressure wave mitigation, the micro-bubble distribution in the target vessel was measured at the tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) mercury loop of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under collaboration with the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). 2. Neutron Science Various maintenance and improvements have been carried out in twelve BL's during the Summer shutdown. A large vacuum tank with a volume of 50 m3 (the weight of 40t) for the High Resolution Chopper Spectrometer (HRC) was installed at BL12. A small vacuum tank and six gas-filled tanks with a total volume of 20 m3 for the super high resolution powder diffractometer (SuperHRPD) was installed at BL08 after the removal of the second-hand chamber. The installation of 3He detectors for both BL08 and BL12 are now underway. Disk choppers maintenance and the confirmation of the guide tube alignment were carried out in the Disk-Chopper Spectrometer (AMATERAS) at BL14, and in the Engineering diffractometer (Takumi) at BL19. Maintenance of detectors and electronics etc. were carried out in most of the BL's. User operation for the 2009A period (the first half of FY2009) has been re-started on Oct. 12. 105 accepted experiments out of 116 proposals will be carried out during the period of 2009A. The first result of the High Intensity Chopper Spectrometer (4Seasons, BL01) utilizing the new technique of "the Multiple Incident Energies" has been published and selected as the Editor's choice of the Journal of the Physical Society of Japan (J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 78 (2009) 093002). 3. Neutron Optics and Detectors A neutron focusing device consisting of a spheroidal supermirror (m=2) has been developed by using an ion beam sputtering instrument. Elliptical mirror optics, which have no chromatic aberration, can be effectively used for manipulating a wide range of wavelengths of neutrons especially at pulsed neutron sources. The performance of this optical system can be increased by using a spheroidal geometry which increases the aperture ratio, and by using supermirrors which increase the critical angle of total reflection. 4. Muon Science The designs of the muon production target and the two sets of scrapers are such that they are both placed in one large vacuum chamber in order to make remote handling simple during maintenance work. Particular care was given to the means of mounting the target, moving and inserting the target with the required precision, as well as cooling, monitoring, and changing the target in the hot cell, assuming that all of the work is intended to be done from the top of the maintenance area. Also we fabricated a dedicated muon cask, together with a stand to position it on top of the target chamber with good precision, for the maintenance of the muon target assembly, the scraper assembly, and the profile monitor assembly. During the summer shutdown of 2009, we have had a commissioning test of exchanging the irradiated muon target assembly having about 50 mSv/h of dose on its surface. The irradiated target assembly was lifted into the cask, and moved into the hot cell. In the hot cell, the target assembly was successfully transferred into the dedicated stand for the muon target assembly. After several measurements such as dose and dimensions, the target assembly was put back into the target chamber in the proton beam line. ----------------------------------------------------------- 5. [Exotic Nuclear Science Group] by Hiroari MIYATAKE ----------------------------------------------------------- THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW COMMITTEE WAS HELD FOR A NEW EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSED BY RNB GROUP A new experimental research project is proposed by a research group of the radioactive nuclear beams (RNB group) to understand the rapid neutron capture process nucleosynthesis by an intensive study on the decay nature of N = 126 waiting point isotones and nearby nuclei. An international review committee for the proposal was held on July 16. The committee appreciates a new initiative of RNB group in this research region. STRUCTURE OF 11Be WAS STUDIED BY USING 9Li RADIOACTIVE NUCLEAR BEAMS AT TOKAI RADIOACTIVE ION ACCELERATOR COMPLEX (TRIAC) The elastic resonance scattering experiment of 9Li and deuteron was successfully performed to study the structure of 11Be during 1-4, Oct. The radioactive nuclear beam (RNB) of 9Li, whose half-life is 0.178 second, was accelerated with the energy of 0.85 MeV/u, purity of almost 100% and intensity of 5*104 particles per second. SELF-DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS IN ELECTROLYTE FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERY WERE DIRECTLY MEASURED AT TRIAC LLTO (Li3xLa2/3-xTiO3) and LVSO (Li3VO4/Li4SiO4) are candidates for the electrolyte of a solid-state lithium ion battery. Self-diffusion coefficients for Li in those materials were directly measured for the first time, using 8Li RNB from TRIAC during 19-23, Sept. The detailed analysis is in progress. ----------------------------------------------------------- 6. [Nuclear Transmutation Section] by Hirofumi TSUJIMOTO ----------------------------------------------------------- NEEDS OF R&D FACILITIES IN NUCLEAR SCIENCE A report on "Research & Test Facilities Required in Nuclear Science & Technology" was published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency. The report says that the Transmutation Experimental Facility under the J-PARC project is expected to play important roles in establishment of the technical basis to deal with minor actinide (MA) in nuclear energy systems and to couple a proton accelerator with a fast spectrum reactor. (http://www.nea.fr/html/science/reports/2009/6293-Research-Test-Faciliti es.pdf) The first meeting of the expert group on Integral Experiments for Minor Actinide Management was held in September at the headquarters of OECD/NEA. This expert group was established by the Nuclear Science Committee to review integral experiments for validating MA nuclear data critically, as well as to recommend additional integral experiments needed for validating MA nuclear data and to investigate the possibility of establishing an international framework for facilitating integral experiments for MA management. The Expert Group will complete and document their activities within two years. ----------------------------------------------------------- 7. [Safety Division] by Taichi MIURA and Hiroshi NAKASHIMA ----------------------------------------------------------- APPLICATION FOR OPERATION LICENSES WERE SUBMITTED TO MEXT Applications for licenses for the operation of the Nuclear and Particle Physics Facility (HD) and the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF), 50GeV proton synchrotron (MR), the Neutrino Experimental Facility (NU) were submitted to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on June 24. The main change points are the enlargement of a secondary beam line in HD :K1.1, the collimator installation in the secondary beam line BL10 in MLF, and the beam-intensity upgrade in HD, MR and NU. The application for the operation of HD, MLF, MR and NU was granted by MEXT on September 25. ----------------------------------------------------------- 8. [Announcement of Symposia and Meetings] ----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- 9. [Editorial Note] ----------------------------------------------------------- In case you do not wish to receive this Newsletter in the future, please send an email to news-l-ctl@ml.j-parc.jp and simply write one sentence in the body of the message as unsubscribe If you wish to receive, write one sentence in the body of the message as subscribe You can get a help with a sentence of "help" in the body. Information on the project can be also obtained at the Web site: http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Editorial Board: Masatoshi ARAI (chair): masatoshi.arai@j-parc.jp Fujio MAEKAWA: maekawa.fujio@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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++