Tuesday, June 12, 2018, 18:20

35 circles of 14 mm diameter of cast #4 were packed into a graphite sample container.

30 x UO₂/C circles = 4.07 g

Graphite container mass = 5.3 g

Graphite tube is placed inside a target boat.

Boat previously coated with TaC and sintered.

Ta-target boat is wrapped with 3 used Ta foils for heat shielding and the boat was installed in Evap1.

Chamber currently pumping down.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018, 10:29 

Initial IGP1 = 6.43e-7 Torr

Tapped to 80A at 10A/10s with 20 s waiting period each 10 A

Waited 5 min for vacuum to stabilize.

Tapped to 90 A at 10A/10s with 20 s waiting period each 10 A

Waited 5 min to tap to 100 A 

Waited 14 min for vacuum to stabilize

Tapped to 400 A at 25A/30s with 30 s waiting period each 25 A

Tapped to 520 A at 20A/30s with 30 s waiting period each 20 A

Max pressure ~0.06 Torr 

Friday, August 03, 2018, 17:44

Target consists of 230 UCx discs, total packing length of 7.1cm. 

Container was previously coated/sintered with TaC (see elog #415) in Evap#2 with TGHT set to 450A/7.5V and TBHT 230A/4.2

Vacuum initial setting:

Good Vac = 5.0 e-5 Torr, Bad vac = 8.0 e-5 Torr.

pressure level will be monitored accordingly...

Auto-ramping setting

TGHT: 60 wait time, 0.2A/min, final 450A

TGHT: 60 wait time, 0.2A/min, final 230A.

Chamber is currently being pumped down.Good

 Monday, August 06, 2018, 00:04

Pressure at 3.6e-6 Torr. 

Initiate autoramping.

 Friday, August 10, 2018, 11:02

TGHT/TBHT have been at 450A(4.5V)/230A(2.9) for over 15 hours.

Pressure is stabilized at 5.2e-6 Torr. 

Initiated auto-cooling at 2A/min for TGHT and 1A/min for TBHT.

 Monday, September 03, 2018, 10:17

Graphite insert fully loaded with UCx was loaded into previously TaC coated target container.

No end caps on Ta target container.

Weight of graphite tube + UCx discs = 27.118 g

Currently pumping down in evap1.

Tuesday, September 04, 2018, 10:17 

IGP1 = 4.02e-6 Torr

Tapped up TBHT and TGHT manually to 100 A @1 A/s with pauses of 20 s.

Wait for 40 min to pressure to stabilize.

Max pressure 1.38e-4 Torr.

Final pressure 5.93e-5 Torr.

Tuesday, September 04, 2018, 11:46 

Good vacuum 5e-1 Torr

Bad vacuum 8e-1 Torr

Initiating auto ramp for TGHT @ 10 A/min to a max setpoint of 520 A

Initiating auto ramp for TBHT @ 5 A/min to a max setpoint of 245 A

 After achieving 520 A with auto ramp, manually tapped to 599 A.

Manually tapped back to 550 A.

Saturday, September 29, 2018, 18:52

Cast is from Jar#1.  (see process sheet for details)

Target boat contains about 50g UO2 powder. 

TGHT will be ramped up to 520A; fast tapping can be done, see elog#211, or set to autoramping with higher vacuum limit (1setup UCx process with pressure up to 60mTorr, see elog #210)

Chamber is currently being pumped down

 Saturday, September 29, 2018, 21:21

Pressure at 2.6e-5 Torr.

Tapping up TGHT in process

 Saturday, September 29, 2018, 21:32

Tapped to 80A/0.65V.  Wait for vacuum to stabilize.

 Saturday, September 29, 2018, 21:42

Pressure stabilized at 2.5mTorr.

Tapping up to 90A/0.701V

Saturday, September 29, 2018, 21:44

Pressure stabilized at 2.7m Torr; tapping up to 100A/0.77V

Saturday, September 29, 2018, 23:57

TGHT at 520A/4394V (see attachment for striptool capture).  Pressure at 163mTorr and coming down.

 Sunday, September 30, 2018, 12:56

At around midnight, pressure was coming down from 160 mTorr to 21 mTorr before TGHT tripped off (see attachment#2).

I suspect the TP was working too hard causing it to trip.

Pressure at 2.1e-6 Torr. 

Using auto-ramping.  Set good vac at 2.0e-4 Torr, bad vac at 5.0e-4 Torr.  Ramping TGHT at 2A/min to reah 520A.

 Sunday, September 30, 2018, 17:11

Pressure limiting at 0.2 mTorr as TGHT slowly ramping up, currently at 442A;  (see attachment#3).

 Monday, October 01, 2018, 21:15

TGHT was held at 520A for at least a day.  Vac at 3.7e-6 Torr.  Ramping down TGHT at 2A/min.

Thursday, October 11, 2018, 18:06

Target consists of 284 UCx discs, total packing length of 8.0 cm. 

Container was previously coated/sintered with TaC (see elog #417) in Evap#2 with TGHT set to 400A and TBHT 230A, but there was a problem with the readback.  Will ramp up TGHT to 400A to see if the carbonization is complete; if not, additional 50A on TGHT can be applied.

One end-cap is inserted on the right, wrt to the ionizer, and left end is open. 

Vacuum initial setting:

Good Vac = 5.0 e-5 Torr, Bad vac = 8.0 e-5 Torr.

pressure level will be monitored accordingly...

Auto-ramping setting

TGHT: 60 wait time, 0.2A/min, final 400A (or addtional of 50 A if required as mentioned above)

TGHT: 60 wait time, 0.2A/min, final 230A.

 Chamber is currently being pumped down.

 Friday, October 12, 2018, 15:35

Chamber has pumped down to 1.8e-6 Torr. 

Stepping up TGHT and TBHT to 40A.

 Friday, October 12, 2018, 17:07

TGHT/TBTH was held at 40A reaching max pressure of 1.7e-5 before slowly coming down. 

Initiated autoramping.

 Thursday, October 18, 2018, 11:10

TGHT reached to 400A/3.98V, pressure is coming down from the upper limit at around 320A which indicated the carbonization is approaching to completion (see attachment#1).  However, two more out-gassing steps are typically observed as TGHT reached around 450 A (see previous UCx conditioning process).  Currently the pressure is at 1.04 e-5 torr. 

Auto-ramping TGHT to 450A at 1A/min, continue to observe the vacuum...

 Thursday, October 18, 2018, 12:57

TGHT reached to 450A/4.6V. Pressure is coming down from 1.6 e-5 Torr. (see attachment#2).  Will remain at this heating current until pressure reached to mid 10-6 torr.

 Tuesday, October 30, 2018, 10:12

A new LP-SIS was coated and syntered (e-log 420 Evaporator_2) 

The container was loaded with a graphite insert loaded with UCx

Graphite insert + UCx mass = 26.927 g

A current of 440 A TGHT and 230 A TBHT will be inputed to the contianer

IGP1 = 8.72e-7 Torr

 The current was tapped manually to 440 A TGHT and 230 A TBHT (see fig. Heatinf test)

Maximum pressure during heating = 1.7e-3 Torr.

Target will stay at maximum current for 1 week.

On Tuesday it was noted that evaporator 1 was not pumping down properly. It was vented and the seal & seal face wiped with a cloth. The initial pump down rate was faster, however after 48 hrs, it has still not pumped down to appropriate levels. 

Thursday, March 21, 2019, 08:59: IV1 closed & TP1 off. 

Monday, October 28, 2019, 10:29

A loaded graphite cartridge was set in a tantalum boated and wrapped with 3 tantalum sheets

The set up was installed in the EVAP1 and pumped dwon during the weekend.

IGP1 = 1.10 e-6 Torr

Monday, October 28, 2019, 10:31

Good vacuum = 1e-1 Torr

Bad vaccum = 5e-1 Torr

The current ramp is 1 A each 10 s from 0 A to 100 A

Monday, October 28, 2019, 11:13 

After 18 min the pressure started dropped.

Monday, October 28, 2019, 11:22 

When the pressure reduced to 5e-4 Torr the current ramp was changed to 3.3 A each 10 s to 480 A, the vacuum limits stayed the same.

Monday, October 28, 2019, 11:45

The limit was set to 500 A with same ramp

Monday, October 28, 2019, 11:48 

The ramp was changed to 1A/10s to 550 A

 Monday, October 28, 2019, 11:55

At 520 A the pressure reach 1e-1 Torr and the autoramp stopped

Monday, October 28, 2019, 13:39

the current was increased manually at aprox. 1A/30 s 

The current dropped suddenly even though the pressure was under the limits and the ramping was in the limits.

Autoramp was set to 3 A/ 10 s from to to 500 A

Then it was changed to 1 A  /30s from 500 to 506 A

Finally it was changed to 1 A/ 10 s from 506 to 520 A

Manually tapped to 530 A

Monday, October 28, 2019, 15:40

At 13:45 the current reached 530 A. 

Wednesday, January 29 2020, 05:55  

A P2N container  with heat shields, and with a UO2/C loaded graphite container was installed in the EVAP1

Chamber is currently being evacuated.

Thursday, January 30, 2020, 08:56

Pressure limits:

Good vacuum 1e-1 Torr

Bad vacuum 5e-1 Torr

Initial pressure: 

IGP1=1.52e-6Torr

Current ramp set to 1A/min to 10 A, voltage is stable.

Current ramp increased to 1A/10s to 100 A. The pressure started raising around 80 A.

Current was kept 5min at at 100 A, voltage was stable

Thursday, January 30, 2020, 09:32 

Current ramp set to 1A/20s to 150 A (same pressure limits)

Pressure keep increasing during heating

Thursday, January 30, 2020, 09:53 

Current was kept at 150 min during 5 min, the voltage is stable, pressure started to stabilize:

IGP1 = 0.027 Torr

TGHT = 0.418 V

Ramp set to 1A/min to 200 A.

Thursday, January 30, 2020, 10:02

Pressure decreasing:

TGHT= 153 A 

 Saturday, June 05, 2021, 08:57

Target #33 was installed in the EVAP1 and pumped down yesterday (Friday 4).

Target #33 is going to be conditioned on a Ta boat wrapped with 3 Ta foils.

IGP1 = 3.85e-6 Torr

Good vacuum = 1e-1 Torr

Bad vacuum = 5e-1 Torr

Power desired 1.6kW. This is the first target conditioned this way, 

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 09:13

Current ramp is 2A/30s to 400 A

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 10:59

TGHT = 3.5V, 399.7 A, 1.4 kW

IGP1 = 4.4e-5 Torr

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 11:00  

Current ramp is 2A/30s to 450 A

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 11:14

 TGHT = 4.06 V, 451.584 A, 1.4 kW

IGP1 = 4.86e-5 Torr

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 11:15 

Current ramp is 2A/30s to 500 A

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 11:23

TGHT = 4.23 V, 467.2 A, 1.97 kW pressure was still increasing a little at 1.6kW

IGP1 = 4.86e-5 Torr

Saturday, June 05, 2021, 19:10

 TGHT = 4.08 V, 459.52 A, 

IGP1 = 6.4e-6 Torr

Initiate ramp down  at 2 A/min to 0A

 Friday, September 24, 2021, 15:38

Full target loaded with ~500 non-active foils plus 4 active foils.  

Initial pressure when heating: 6.6E-5 T 

Manually went to:

TGHT=125 A 

TBHT=50 A

with increments of 5 A each. Pressure has little spikes but mostly unchanged (going down, actually).

Friday, September 24, 2021, 15:42

Manually went to

TGHT=180 A 

TBHT=80 A

Pressure going up steadily, max pressure <2E-4

Friday, September 24, 2021, 16:48

From TGHT=180 A, TBHT=80 A we are aiming at going to TGHT=580 A and TBHT=230 A in increments of 50 A each and leave it there for a total of 5 minutes after nominal parameters are reached. Initial pressure 1.3E-5 T.

Friday, September 24, 2021, 17:01

Fast rampup done, we were up there in 30 seconds.

TGHT VOL = 6.6 V

TBHT VOL = 3 V

Max pressure 2E-3 T. Both TGHT and TBHT were shut off abruptly on purpose. 

 Friday, November 05, 2021, 13:23

Full target loaded with ~500 non-active foils plus 4 active foils.  

Initial pressure when heating: 1.6E-5 T 

Manually went to:

TGHT=125 A 

TBHT=50 A

with increments of 5 A each. Pressure has little spikes but mostly unchanged (going down, actually).

Stayed at those values for 2 min 

Friday, November 05, 2021, 13:37 

Manually went to

TGHT=180 A 

TBHT=80 A

maximum pressure 6.6e-5 Torr

Friday, November 05, 2021, 13:43

IGP1 =  2.45e-5 Torr

We are aiming at going to TGHT=580 A and TBHT=230 A in increments of 50 A each and leave it there for a total of 5 minutes after nominal parameters are reached 

Friday, November 05, 2021, 13:55

IGP1 =  1.7e-5 Torr

Heating done, we stayed at 530A for a bit long (~15 sec) during the heating so the total heat time at 580A was interrupted at 4 mins 50 seconds instead of 5 mins. All good, max pressure during the heating was 0.013 T.

Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 10:38

A first, short "FullTa1" target was loaded into the evap1. It consists of a short container (10 cm) with lateral thickness of ~0.2mm. The ends of the target connect with the TGHT terminals through two copper adapters.

After pumpdown down to ~4E-5 T, the TGHT was ramped gradually to 200 A in the next ~5 mins, leaving the target at 200 A for about 10 mins. Then, the current was increased fastly to 450 A in about 30 seconds, and was left at 450 A for a minute. 

Note: the one minute at 450 A started when the TGHT voltage drop across stabilized, considered a sign of temperature homogeneity across the target container

Wednesday, November 24, 2021, 14:34

The second short container "FullTa2" target has been loaded and heated, following the same procedure as above. In this case, the initial pumpdown went to a lower pressure (1.5E-5 T instead of ~4E-5 T) resulting in lower pressure throughout the whole procedure

Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 16:26

Cartridge #22 loaded with 211 discs including 3 analysis discs

To be reduced inside a Ta container tube.  Tube wrapped in 3 Ta foil heatshields.

Reduction for 4 hours and then 8 hours @ 450A (see docushare 177267)

Good Vacuum: 5.0e-04 Torr

Bad Vacuum: 5.0e-02 Torr

Initial pressure is 1.6 e-06 Torr

Tuesday, January 14, 2025, 16:27

Left system to pump down earlier in the day. 

Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 10:23

Earlier started initial ramp to 60A at 2A/min

Initial pressure IGP1 was 2.65e-06 Torr

Pressure stable now at 2.40e-5 Torr

Starting ramp to 90 A at 1A/min

Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 18:06

top current = 440A held for four hours

John Wong wrote:

John Wong wrote: March 23, 2011 12:30: Pumping down evaporator 18:24: IEVAPIG1 is reading at 4.55e-6 Torr.  The p/s will be turned on tomorrow since there is no ISAC Ops on site.  March 24 11:57: Evaporator has pumped down over night.  Vacuum @ 2.01e-6 Torr.   14:42: TGHT @ 20A, Vac @ 1.65e-6 Torr. 14:52: TGHT @ 40A, Vac @ 1.66e-6 Torr. 14:52: Auto Heating begins: TGHT to max 820A.  Incrementing if vac < 4.5e-5 Torr, backing off if vac > 6.5e-5 Torr.  16:04: TGHT @ 181A, vac @ 7.59e-6 Torr. 18:03: TGHT @ 420A, vac @ 4.71e-6 Torr.   (See attachment 2 for TGHT/IG1 for the past 4 hours) March 25, 11:15:  TGHT has been at 820A for 14hr.  Vac @ 4.27e-6 Torr.  (See attachement 3 for TGHT/IG1 for these past hours) 11:17:  Auto cooling down is in progress... 17:21:  Auto cooling down ended at TGHT ~100A.  The TGHT was tabbed down manually from 100A to zero.  (See attachment #4 for the cooling down progress)  All the pumps are off.  The evaporator will be vented next week.

 Evaporator Vented.

March 28, 2011

12:28:  Target oven is wrapped with 3 Ta-heat shields.  Pumping down evaporator

March 29,

12:14  Evaporator has been pumped down over night.  Vac @ 1.74e-6 Torr. 

12:24  TGHT @ 20A, Vac @ 1.66e-6 Torr.

12:29  TGHT @ 40A, Vac @ 1.56e-6 Torr.

12:30  Auto heating begins,  Paramenter Setup:  TGHT: 2A/min -->  max 820A.  Incrementing if Vac < 4.5e-5 Torr; backing off if vac > 6.5e-5 Torr.

18:37  TGHT @ 772A/7.395V  (see attachment#1 for the striptool).  Auto heating will stop when the TGHT gets to 820A, and the current will stay there over night. 

March 30

11:31 TGHT has been at 820A/7.8V for the past 17 hours.  (See attachment#2 for the striptool details.)

11:34 Auto-cooling beings

19:40 Auto-cooling has finished. TGHT is at zero and p/s has turned off.  Cooling water has stopped running.  Evaporator will be vented tomorrow.

March 31, 2011

11:13:  Venting evaporator.  All pumps are off and TGHT p/s has turned off. 

Thu Mar 31 11:57:20 2011 After removing the target from the evaporator,  some white coating (could be Tantalum oxide?) was found on the copper plate of the evaporator.  The white coating was found to have more on the left end side of the target and some just below the transfer tube.  The white coating was wiped off but it showed black residual on the wipers.  The target over looks fine.  Marik was informed, and we think this white coating could be  the organic substance burnt off from the target or the Tantalum oxide from the re-used Ta heat shields. 

It's the NON-ACTIVE water that will go off.  The evaporator is on sity water, so it will be OK.

Tue Apr 5 10:36:53 2011:  Target oven is wrapped with 3 Ta-heat shields.  The evaporator is in the process of pumping down. 

Tue Apr 5 14:54:00 2011:  Evap has been pumped down for over 4 hours.  Vac is currently at 5.5e-6 Torr. (See Attachment#1)

Tue Apr 5 15:16:31 2011: TGHT is turned on.  Set  @ 20A/0.102V; panel reads 18A.  Vac @ 4.62e-6 Torr. 

Tue Apr 5 15:18:16 2011: TGHT set @ 40A/0.216V; panel reads 37A.  Vac @ 4.63e-6 Torr. 

Tue Apr 5 15:19:03 2011: Start Auto-heating.  Parameter setup:  TGHT rate @ 2A/min --> 820A max.  Incrementing if vac <4.5e-5 Torr, and backing off if vac >6.5e-5 Torr.

 Wed Apr 6 09:18:22 2011: TGHT was left at the auto- heating mode over night and  had been at 850A for about 12hrs; Vac @ 4.36e-6 Torr.  (see Attachment#2) 

Wed Apr 6 09:20:53 2011: Auto-cooling down has just started. 

Wed Apr 6 15:33:51 2011:  Auto-cooling completed.  (see Attachment #3 for the overall process)

Wed Apr 6 15:37:10 2011: TGHT p/s off, Venting evaporator. 

Wed Apr 6 17:06:56 2011: Target oven is wrapped with 3 Ta-heat shields.  Pumping down evaporator in progress.

Thu Apr 7 09:32:36 2011: Evaporator has been pumped down for over 16 hrs, vac @ 1.74e-6 Torr (see attachment#1).   Target heater is turned on and about to ramp up.

 Thu Apr 7 09:37:11 2011: TGHT @ 20A/0.071V, panel reads 18A.

Thu Apr 7 09:38:16 2011: TGHT @ 40A/0.147V, panel reads 37A.

Thu Apr 7 09:40:53 2011:  Auto-heating begins.  (See attachment#2 for Parameter Setup)

Fri Apr 8 10:08:07 2011:  Auto-cooling process began last night at 8:30pm.  Instructions were given to the on shift ISAC-Ops to being the auto cooling.  The process was finished this morning at around 3am.  (See attachment#3 for the cooling down process).  The evaporator p/s is off and ready to be vented.

Fri Apr 8 14:51:37 2011:  Target is wrapped with 3 Ta-heat shields.  The evaporator has been pumped down for over 4 hrs, currently vac @ 2.8e-6 Torr.  (See attachment #1, note: the drops in the IG1 reading were due to Controls group helping to fix the alarm handler notifications for the pagers.)

 Fri Apr 8 14:56:21 2011:  TGHT @ 20A/0.079V, panel reads 18V.   Vac @ 2.73e-6 Torr.

Fri Apr 8 14:57:42 2011: TGHT @ 40A/0.165V, panel reads 18A.  Vac @ 2.73e-6 Torr. 

Fri Apr 8 14:59:51 2011: Auto heating begins.  (See Attachment#2 for the parameter setup).  The target heater will read to 820A at 21:30.  ISAC Ops will help to cool down the target at around 05:00 on Saturday; instructions will be given.

Mon Apr 11 09:37:40 2011:  Target was cooling on last Saturday April 9 by the help from ISAC Ops.  (See Attachment#3 for the cooling down process).

Mon Apr 11 09:42:09 2011 :  Evaporator is vented.