Start-up of Injector
The PPS test and the HV tests for the injector were successfully performed on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Deuterium gas injection was resumed on Wednesday afternoon but after few hours the pressure in the injector vacuum chamber started to rise. Even at low gas flow rate the stability of the vacuum was not satisfactory. Today the previous configuration using the oil vane rotary pump was reinstalled and vacuum resumed. Plasma production was immediately started to resume the conditioning of the ion source. The vault will now be predominantly closed until mid of December in preparation of the facility inspection.
HEBT (High Energy Beam Transport) commissioning
HEBT magnets – The HEBT quadrupole magnets functional tests were completed for 6 magnets with remote support from CIEMAT: individual automatic cycling tests, simultaneous cycling test and powering at maximum level were carried out this week.
HEBT vacuum – HEBT vacuum functional tests were started resuming the operation of the cryopumps and all went smooth. It is planned to run a long stability test.
The start-up behaviour of the 2 freshly regenerated ionic pumps was tested and demonstrated the effectiveness of the regeneration process. The remaining 2 ionic pumps will be regenerated after the facility inspection.
Disclaimer: the information reported is not meant to be technically complete and doesn’t cover all the activities currently carried out on LIPAc.