Although computer-based procedures (CBPs) have been investigated as a way to enhance operator performance on procedural tasks in the nuclear industry for almost thirty years, they are not currently widely deployed at United States utilities. One of the barriers to the wide scale deployment of CBPs is the lack of operational experience with CBPs that could serve as a sound basis for justifying the use of CBPs for nuclear utilities. Utilities are hesitant to adopt CBPs because of concern over potential costs of implementation, and concern over regulatory approval. Regulators require a sound technical basis for the use of any procedure at the utilities; without operating experience to support the use CBPs, it is difficult to establish such a technical basis. In an effort to begin the process of developing a technical basis for CBPs, researchers at Idaho National Laboratory are partnering with industry to explore CBPs with the objective of defining requirements for CBPs and developing an industry-wide vision and path forward for the use of CBPs. This paper describes the results from a qualitative study aimed at defining requirements for CBPs to be used by field operators and maintenance technicians.

The use of nonlinear lattices with large betatron tune spreads can increase instability and space charge thresholds due to improved Landau damping. Unfortunately, the majority of nonlinear accelerator lattices turn out to be nonintegrable, producing chaotic motion and a complex network of stable and unstable resonances. Recent advances in finding the integrable nonlinear accelerator lattices have led to a proposal to construct at Fermilab a test accelerator with strong nonlinear focusing which avoids resonances and chaotic particle motion. This presentation will outline the main challenges, theoretical design solutions and construction status of the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) underway at Fermilab.

The thorough study of coherent electron cooling, the modern cooling technique capable to deal with accelerators operating in the range of few TeVs, rises many interesting questions. One of them is a shielding dynamics of a hadron in an electron beam. Now this effect is computed analytically in the infinite beam approximation. Many effects are drastically different in finite and infinite plasmas. Here we propose a method to compute the dynamical shielding effect in a finite cylindrical plasma - the realistic model of an electron beam in accelerators.

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With the shutdown of the Tevatron, the T-980 crystal collimation experiment at Fermilab has been successfully completed. Results of dedicated beam studies in May 2011 are described in this paper. For these studies, two multi-strip crystals were installed in the vertical goniometer and an O-shaped crystal installed in a horizontal goniometer. A two-plane CMS pixel detector was also installed in order to enhance the experiment with the capability to image the profile of crystal channeled or multiple volume reflected beam. The experiment successfully imaged channeled beam from a crystal for 980-GeV protons for the first time. This new enhanced hardware yielded impressive results. The performance and characterization of the crystals studied have been very reproducible over time and consistent with simulations.

This paper describes recent advances in Monte Carlo simulations of microchannel plate (MCP)–based x-ray detectors, a continuation of ongoing work in this area. A Monte Carlo simulation model has been developed over the past several years by National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec). The model simulates the secondary electron emission process in an MCP pore and includes the effects of gain saturation. In this work we focus on MCP gain saturation and dynamic range. We have performed modeling and experimental characterizations of L/D = 46, 10-micron diameter, MCP-based detectors. The detectors are typically operated by applying a subnanosecond voltage pulse, which gates the detector on. Agreement between the simulations and experiment is very good for a variety of voltage pulse waveforms ranging in width from 150 to 300 ps. The results indicate that such an MCP begins to show nonlinear gain around 5 × 10^4 electrons per pore and hard saturation around 105 electrons per pore. The simulations show a difference in MCP sensitivity vs voltage for high flux of photons producing large numbers of photoelectrons on a subpicosecond timescale. Simulations and experiments both indicate an MCP dynamic range of 1 to 10,000, and the dynamic range depends on how the …

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In 2011, we upgraded a 201 MHz buncher in the proton injector for the alternating gradient synchrotron (AGS) - relativistic heavy ion collider (RHIC) complex. In the buncher we installed four grids made of tungsten to improve the transit time factor. The grid installed drift tubes have 32 mm of inner diameter and the each grid consists of four quadrants. The quadrants were cut out precisely from 1mm thick tungsten plates by a computerized numerically controlled (CNC) wire cutting electrical discharge machining (EDM). The 3D electric field of the grid was simulated.

The Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is a research, development, and deployment program sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. The program is operated in close collaboration with industry research and development programs to provide the technical foundations for licensing and managing the long-term, safe, and economical operation of nuclear power plants that are currently in operation. Advanced instrumentation and control (I&C) technologies are needed to support the continued safe and reliable production of power from nuclear energy systems during sustained periods of operation up to and beyond their expected licensed lifetime. This requires that new capabilities to achieve process control be developed and eventually implemented in existing nuclear control rooms. It also requires that approaches be developed and proven to achieve sustainability of I&C systems throughout the period of extended operation. Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is working closely with nuclear utilities to develop technologies and solutions to help ensure the safe life extension of current reactors. One of the main areas of focus is control room modernization. Current analog control rooms are growing obsolete, and it is difficult for utilities to maintain them. Using its reconfigurable control room simulator adapted from a training simulator, INL serves as a …

This research is carried out as part of the Gas-Phase Molecular Dynamics program in the Chemistry Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Chemical intermediates in the elementary gas-phase reactions involved in combustion chemistry are investigated by high resolution spectroscopic tools. Production, reaction, and energy transfer processes are investigated by transient, double resonance, polarization and saturation spectroscopies, with an emphasis on technique development and connection with theory, as well as specific molecular properties.

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In addition to the recent optics correction technique demonstrated at CERN and applied at RHIC, it is important to have a separate tool to control the value of the beta functions at the collision point ({beta}*). This becomes even more relevant when trying to reach high level of integrated luminosity while dealing with emittance blow-up over the length of a store, or taking advantage of compensation processes like stochastic cooling. Algorithms have been developed to allow modifying independently the beta function in each plane for each beam without significant increase in beam losses. The following reviews the principle of such algorithms and their experimental implementation as a dynamic {beta}-squeeze procedure.

For Project X, it is planned to inject a beam of 3 10{sup 11} particles per bunch into the Main Injector. To prepare for this by studying the effects of higher intensity bunches in the Main Injector it is necessary to perform coalescing at 8 GeV. The results of a series of experiments and simulations of 8 GeV coalescing are presented. To increase the coalescing efficiency adiabatic reduction of the 53 MHz RF is required. This results in {approx}70% coalescing efficiency of 5 initial bunches. Data using wall current monitors has been taken to compare previous work and new simulations for 53 MHz RF reduction, bunch rotations and coalescing, good agreement between experiment and simulation was found. By increasing the number of bunches to 7 and compressing the bunch energy spread a scheme generating approximately 3 10{sup 11} particles in a bunch has been achieved. These bunches will then be used in further investigations.

For Project X, it is planned to inject a beam of 3 10{sup 11} particles per bunch into the Main Injector. Therefore, at 8 GeV, there will be increased space charge tune shifts and an increased incoherent tune spread. In preparation for these higher intensity bunches exploratory studies have commenced looking at the transmission of different intensity bunches at different tunes. An experiment is described with results for bunch intensities between 20 and 300 10{sup 9} particles. To achieve the highest intensity bunches coalescing at 8 GeV is required, resulting in a longer bunch length. Comparisons show that similar transmission curves are obtained when the intensity and bunch length have increased by similar factors. This indicates the incoherent tune shifts are similar, as expected from theory. The results of these experiments will be used in conjugation with simulations to further study high intensity bunches in the Main Injector.

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This presentation reported on the technology choices and progress manufacturing and testing the injector and accelerator of the 250 MeV ultra-compact Compton Scattering gamma-ray Source under development at LLNL for homeland security applications. This paper summarizes the status of various facets of current accelerator activities at LLNL. The major components for the X-band test station have been designed, fabricated, and await installation. The XL-4 klystron has been delivered, and will shortly be dressed and installed in the ScandiNova modulator. High power testing of the klystron into RF loads will follow, including adjustment of the modulator for the klystron load as necessary. Assembly of RF transport, test station supports, and accelerator components will follow. Commissioning will focus on processing the RF gun to full operating power, which corresponds to 200 MV/m peak electric field on the cathode surface. Single bunch benchmarking of the Mark 1 design will provide confidence that this first structure operates as designed, and will serve as a solid starting point for subsequent changes, such as a removable photocathode, and the use of various cathode materials for enhanced quantum efficiency. Charge scaling experiments will follow, partly to confirm predictions, as well as to identify important causes of emittance …

We discuss the progress made on a new installation in Fermilab's Main Injector that will help investigate the electron cloud phenomenon by making direct measurements of the secondary electron yield (SEY) of samples irradiated in the accelerator. In the Project X upgrade the Main Injector will have its beam intensity increased by a factor of three compared to current operations. This may result in the beam being subject to instabilities from the electron cloud. Measured SEY values can be used to further constrain simulations and aid our extrapolation to Project X intensities. The SEY test-stand, developed in conjunction with Cornell and SLAC, is capable of measuring the SEY from samples using an incident electron beam when the samples are biased at different voltages. We present the design and manufacture of the test-stand and the results of initial laboratory tests on samples prior to installation.

The influence of an intense beam in a high-pressure gas filled RF cavity has been measured by using a 400 MeV proton beam in the Mucool Test Area at Fermilab. The ionization process generates dense plasma in the cavity and the resultant power loss to the plasma is determined by measuring the cavity voltage on a sampling oscilloscope. The energy loss has been observed with various peak RF field gradients (E), gas pressures (p), and beam intensities in nitrogen and hydrogen gases. Observed RF energy dissipation in single electron (dw) in N{sub 2} and H{sub 2} gases was 2 10{sup -17} and 3 10{sup -17} Joules/RF cycle at E/p = 8 V/cm/Torr, respectively. More detailed dw measurement have been done in H{sub 2} gas at three different gas pressures. There is a clear discrepancy between the observed dw and analytical one. The discrepancy may be due to the gas density effect that has already been observed in various experiments.

In polarized proton operation in RHIC coherent beam-beam modes are routinely observed with beam transfer function measurements in the vertical plane. With the existence of coherent modes a larger space is required in the tune diagram than without them and stable conditions can be compromised for operation with high intensity beams as foreseen for future luminosity upgrades. We report on experiments and simulations carried out to understand the existence of coherent modes in the vertical plane and their absence in the horizontal plane, and investigate possible mitigation strategies.

Recently, Balbekov and Burov have produced an ordinary integro-differential equation that approximates the Vlasov equation for beams with wakefields and large space charge tune shift. The present work compares this model with simulations. In particular, the claim that certain types of transverse wakes cannot lead to mode coupling instabilities is explored.