Laura Lambert wrote:

Thursday, July 13, 2017, 12:48 NOTE: hot lab reached 27degrees every day this week and went up to 28C today!  This is with the small portable fan running. 27C was reached even with both evaporators off. When at 28C: evap2 = ~1500C and evap1 = 35A  Thursday, July 20, 2017, 15:58 Hot lab reached 30C today. Small fan off - unsure if able to run due to contamination spread... Both evap1 and evap2 were under vacuum but had not initiated ramping up yet.

 Thursday, July 27, 2017, 09:06

There was a broken valve motor affecting all ISAC rooms - temporary fix in place.

Ventilation in ISAC hot lab has been increased.

Temperature back to a reasonable level - currently sitting at 22C!

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Marla Cervantes wrote:  Friday, January 19, 2018, 12:29 Circles from cast 1 were used, the same as the last round of 1stepUCx [see elog i.d. 164] A 14mm punch was used to punch out circles from the cast. 35 circles were packed into a graphite sample container. 35 x UO2/C circles = 5.69 g Graphite container = 6.84 g Graphite container is placed inside a target boat. Boat previously coated with TaC and sintered. Ta-target boat is wrapped with 3-layers of heat shield and installed in Evap1. Chamber currently pumping down.    Monday, January 22, 2018, 9:00 A power outage on Sunday tripped off EVAP1.

 Monday, January 22, 2018, 10:00

Chamber pumping down.

Water flow turned on.

Monday, January 22, 2018, 13:30

IGP1 = 8e-6 Torr

Tapped up entire process manually to 520A in 45 min

TGHT = 520 A, 6.08 V 

Vacuum coming down indicating carbonization process complete

Will remain at max setpoint overnight.

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Marla Cervantes wrote:  Monday, January 29, 2018, 09:26 35 circles of 14 mm diameter were packed into a graphite sample container. 35 x UO2/C circles = 4.94 g Graphite container = 5.03 g Graphite tube is placed inside a target boat. Boat previously coated with TaC and sintered. Ta-target boat is wrapped with 3 new Ta foils for heat shielding and the boat was installed in Evap1. Chamber currently pumping down.    Monday, January 29, 2018, 11:06 A power outage around 10 am tripped off EVAP1.

 Monday, January 29, 2018, 14:22

Water flow turned on.

Chamber set to pumping down. 

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Thursday, February 08, 2018, 14:50 35 circles from cast#2 of 14 mm diameter were packed into a graphite sample container. 35 x UO2/C circles = 4.76 g Graphite container = 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 new Ta foils for heat shielding and the boat was installed in Evap1. Chamber currently pumping down.  Friday, February 09, 2018, 10:40 Initial IGP1 = 4.54e-7 Torr Tapped up entire process manually to 520A in 25 min TGHT = 520 A, 5.49 V Vacuum coming down indicating carbonization process complete.   Current suddenly tripped off from 520 A to 0 A. There was not a power outage. There was good vacuum. Water cooling did not trip off

 Friday, February 09, 2018, 16:49

The power supply was tested and its working normally.

Apparently a glitch on EPICS caused the tripped off.

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Tuesday, February 13, 2018, 11:39 35 circles of 14 mm diameter were packed into a graphite sample container. 35 x UO2/C circles = 5.74 g Graphite container = 5.20 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.  Tuesday, February 13, 2018, 15:30 Initial IGP1 = 2.73x10e-6 Torr Tapped up entire process manually to 520 A in 30 min TGHT = 520 A, 5.41 V Vacuum coming down nicely indicating carbonization process complete. Current trip off after 5 min of being at 520 A.  Wednesday, February 14, 2018, 15:32 EVAP1 vented with Argon and the target was removed. Target was transferred to glove box. Ta boat and graphite container look unbroken.

 Friday, March 02, 2018, 16:31

A test was performed in EVAP1 (see log ID 194):

- A Ta boat without Ta shielding was submitted to 520 A and it remained at that current point overnight.

-No trip off

Laura Lambert wrote:

Laura Lambert wrote:  Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 11:35 D-shaped discs were cut from cast 2, the same as the last sample of 1stepUCx [see elog i.d. 197] A 13mm punch was used to punch out discs from pre-cut strips using the old method. The target consists of 195 discs with 8.1cm in length - all single discs, no packs. 195 x UO2/C discs = 19.79g Graphite insert is placed inside a target boat with both endcaps on. Boat previously coated with TaC and sintered. Ta-target boat is wrapped with 3-layers of heat shield and installed in evap1 yesterday afternoon. Chamber pumped down overnight.  Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 13:33 IGP1 = 4.03e-7 Torr Tapped up TGHT manually to 80A, 0.83V - waited 50min, vacuum started to drop/stabilize. Continued to tap up manually to 430A, 4.22V Started out slow with a rate of ~10A/5min, and slowly increased to a rate of ~10A/min as vacuum stabilized, slowing down again when reaching carbonization outgassing. Auto ramp at 0.2A/min from 430A-520A. Thursday, March 29, 2018, 10:04 Reached 520A around 2am. TGHT = 520A, 5.13V IGP1 = 1.74e-6 Torr Initiated auto-cool this morning at a rate of 1.0A/min.    Monday, April 09, 2018, 16:00 ISAC controls performed a PLC switch over compromising the nuclear ventilation controls WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME   This is the 2nd time in a month this has happened without being notified. Evap1 has therefore tripped. During this switch there was a problem which caused the turn over to take even longer. Sat here tapping reset until nuclear ventilation was 'back on'. Vacuum proceeded to drop once the tests were complete, then started to spike again, nuc vent remained not ok after tests were done nuc vent ok.

 Monday, April 09, 2018, 16:52

Turns out I wasn't on a list of ppl who need to know about this test when I should be

They also didn't reset the alarms locally outside the hot lab so nuc vent remained not ok until this was reset.

IGP1 reached 0.027 Torr before nuc vent was ok and pumps were able to be turned back on 

Pumps back on IGP1 = 1.86e-5 Torr and still pumping down

 Tuesday, June 26, 2018, 09:30. Gloves on evap 1 changed out. 

The original right one was otrn. Left was o but worn. Both replaced with new gloves.

Marla Cervantes wrote:

John Wong wrote: 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.    Friday, October 19, 2018, 10:00 TRIUMF had a total power outage, the TBHT  and TGHT current had been ramped down already.

  Sunday, October 21, 2018, 1:00 pm

the pumps went out, and the communication with the IEVAP was recovered on Sunday, the vacuum was 160 mTorr,

the pumps were turned on again.

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Marla Cervantes wrote: 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   Thursday, January 30, 2020, 10:15 At 155 A while pressure decreasing, the power supply tripped off, Controls has been notified, waiting for instructions.

 Thursday, January 30, 2020, 11:51

Controls respond "It looks like the power supplies were tripped by either the pirani gauge (IEVAP:IGP1) or the Nuclear vent or by both. But, it did not look like that the interlock tree latched the bad condition when the power supplies tripped. I modified the PLC to properly latch the cause of the trip." and gave green light to restart the carbothermal reduction.

Marla Cervantes wrote:

Marla Cervantes wrote: Marla Cervantes wrote: Marla Cervantes wrote: Marla Cervantes wrote: Marla Cervantes wrote: 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   Thursday, January 30, 2020, 10:15 At 155 A while pressure decreasing, the power supply tripped off, Controls has been notified, waiting for instructions.    Thursday, January 30, 2020, 11:51 Controls respond "It looks like the power supplies were tripped by either the pirani gauge (IEVAP:IGP1) or the Nuclear vent or by both. But, it did not look like that the interlock tree latched the bad condition when the power supplies tripped. I modified the PLC to properly latch the cause of the trip." and gave green light to restart the carbothermal reduction.  Thursday, January 30, 2020, 13:09 IGP1=5.9e-6Torr Ramp set to 1A/10s to 200 A Pressure rising too fast at 200 A, current reduced manually to 190 A Pressure start dropping and system tripped, notify to controls again, "The strip tool shows the vacuum level shoot down to 0 then shoot back up for a quick second but that is enough to tell the PLC that IGP is “bad”" Thursday, January 30, 2020, 15:58  Restarting process to try to trip the system on purpose  Initial pressure IGP1 = 2.7e-6Torr Ramp set to 1/A/10s to 200 A, 0.59 V Ramp set to 2A/10s to 300 A Max pressure during process IGP1 = 0.03 Torr Voltage increased and stabilized (see voltage rising). Ramp kept at 2A/10s to 400 A Thursday, January 30, 2020, 16:48  TGHT = 1.54 V, 399.744 A IGP1 = 0.00016 Torr and going down Ramp set to 2A/10s to 500 A Thursday, January 30, 2020, 17:02  TGHT= 1.9V, 499.2 A IGP1 = 0.00014 Torr Ramp set to 2A/10s to 600 A Ramp set to 0.5 A/min to 700 A, ramp stopped at 680 A Manually tapped to 697 A Pressure dropping indicated that carbothermal reduction is done. Unfortunately, the system did not trip.  Contact Gelo for the  next run, such that he can monitor the system and we can spot the problem.  Friday, January 31, 2020, 15:35 The EVP1 was vent with Ar and the P2N target was transferred to the glove box.  Thursday, August 13, 2020, 14:33 XRD analysis of the P2N material showed that the carbothermal reduction was not completed The material was loaded again in its oven, new Ta caps where secured to the edges, the body remained the same The oven was set in the EVAP1 using Ar to avoid oxidation of the P2N material Currently pumping down.  Saturday, August 15, 2020, 14:45  Vacuum is having a strange behavior, pressure shows that is going from 8e-11 to 4e-6 Torr (fig. 200815-Vaccum_P2N) Proceeded to turn off turbo pump Tuesday, August 18, 2020, 10:38 The IGP1 head was replaced with the EVAP1's IGP1 head The vacuum will be started again

 Tuesday, August 18, 2020, 20:44

The pressure reading are normal after swapping the IGP1's gauge head