ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your name and complete internet address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.

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ALSNews           Vol. 103           May 27, 1998

Table of Contents


    1. STARTUP IN PROGRESS, USER BEAM SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 3
    2. LAST CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR PROPOSALS, DUE JUNE 1
    3. OPERATIONS UPDATE

1. STARTUP IN PROGRESS, USER BEAM SCHEDULED FOR JUNE 3
(contact: jpharkins@lbl.gov)

The ALS is in the process of starting up after a scheduled shutdown for equipment installations and improvements. All major activities scheduled for the shutdown have been completed, and startup began on May 20, five days ahead of schedule. First light for users is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. on June 3. Many thanks to all those who helped make this shutdown a success.

Major shutdown activities included installation of a new 10-cm-period undulator and front end in sector 10, realignment of the booster ring (details below), installation of two new windows in the storage-ring rf system, installation of a new mirror tank on Beamline 8.0.1, and installation of a front end in the booster-to-storage ring transfer line. (A future beamline attached to this front end will be able to run when the booster ring is not being used for injection to the storage ring.) The rf windows are currently being conditioned. If conditioning is successful, the ALS will be able to run at a higher rf power in the storage ring, thereby increasing beam lifetime.

** Booster Ring Completely Surveyed and Aligned **
ALS staff have surveyed and realigned the entire booster ring for the first time in its seven years of operation. On May 21, they successfully accelerated 3 mA of electrons to 1.5 GeV in the booster. The realignment appears to have been a great success. Orbit errors are 1 mm rms with no corrector magnets or sextupoles turned on. Beam is quite reproducible, and no resonant losses have been observed. Further tuning of the injection orbit will be done for higher currents.

** Higher-Capacity Chiller Unit Installed **
In a separate project coordinated with the ALS shutdown, Berkeley Lab Facilities has completed installation of a new 450-ton chiller unit. The unit provides cold water for the air temperature control system in the ALS and has 100% of the required backup cooling capacity for warm weather. With the previous setup, it was necessary to switch in an additional small chiller during warm weather. The new system should significantly improve temperature stability of the chilled-water system, and thus improve the position stability of the storage ring electron beam.

2. LAST CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR PROPOSALS, DUE JUNE 1

The ALS is accepting proposals for a few more days from scientists who wish to conduct research at the facility as independent investigators between October 1998 and March 1999 inclusive. The deadline for proposals is June 1, 1998. There will be no automatic rollover of proposals from the previous proposal cycle (June-September 1998). Scientists wishing to renew a previous proposal should notify the ALS User Administrator, Ruth Pepe (contact information below), before the June 1 deadline.

The proposal form for independent investigators is available in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Web. Information on the proposal process is available at the same location. Data sheets on beamlines at the ALS (available in Portable Document Format) provide information that may be useful to prospective ALS users.

To request a proposal form by mail, contact:
Ruth Pepe, ALS User Administrator
Tel: (510) 486-5268
Fax: (510) 486-4773
Email: alsuser@lbl.gov

For information on beamlines available to independent investigators, contact:
Gary Krebs, ALS User Services Group Leader
Tel: (510) 486-7727
Fax: (510) 486-4102
Email: g_krebs@lbl.gov

3. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(contact: rmmiller@lbl.gov)

The ALS is about to come out of a planned shutdown period for maintenance and installations (see above for updates). Weekly operations scheduling meetings, held on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. in the Building 6 conference room, will resume on May 29. User operations are scheduled to resume June 3.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.