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J-PARC Project Newsletter
No.69, January 2018
Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex under operation jointly by
the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) and the Japan
Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
http://j-parc.jp/index-e.html
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HEADLINES AND CONTENTS
1. [Overview]
MORE EXCITEMENT WITH HIGHER POWER BEAMS AND MORE USERS.
2. [Accelerator Division]
STABLE OPERATION OF THE ACCELERATORS FROM OCTOBER TO DECEMBER.
3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division]
TOPICAL WORKSHOP ON HADRON PHYSICS AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON
STRANGENESS NUCLEAR PHYSICS.
J-PARC NEUTRINO FACILITY IN OPERATION WITH 475 KW RECORD BEAM POWER.
STATUS OF THE COHERENT MUON TO ELECTRON TRANSITION (COMET).
STATUS OF THE MUON G-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34).
4. [Materials and Life Science Division]
NEUTRON PRODUCTION OPERATION AT 300 KW; BACK TO 2014 LEVEL.
THE 9TH AONSA NEUTRON SCHOOL / THE 2ND NEUTRON AND MUON SCHOOL WAS
HELD.
260 NEUTRON GENERAL PROPOSALS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FOR THE 2018A
PERIOD.
USER PROGRAM RESUMED FOR 2017B TERM.
5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division]
SHOWING ACCELERATOR-DRIVEN SYSTEM IN SANCTUARY OF NUCLEAR ENERGY.
6. [Safety Division]
THE EMERGENCY DRILL ASSUMING A RADIATION WORKER CONTAMINATION WAS
HELD.
FISCAL 2017 J-PARC SAFETY AUDIT.
7. [Editorial Note]
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1. [Overview] by Naohito SAITO
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MORE EXCITEMENT WITH HIGHER POWER BEAMS AND MORE USERS
We have started the new year's operation after about three weeks
of shutdown including the end-of-year/new-year break.
The beam power at the Materials and Life Science Facility (MLF) is
now at 400 kW, which is 40 percent of the design power. We have moved
to this new stage of operation after careful examination of the
300-kW operation since last October. The current target for neutron
production a.k.a. target#8, is behaving as we expected based on the
model calculation carefully done by the target group. As we
accumulate more experience at 400-kW operation, we intend to gain
our confidence to go to 500 kW, which is the goal of the target
operation for users before this summer. We would like to continue
every effort to realize stable high-power operation at MLF.
The Main Ring (MR) is being operated for slow-extraction. Newly
installed electro-static septum (ESS) has been carefully conditioned
in situ after intense conditioning on the test bench. The new ESS is
equipped with a more reliable protection system against a possible
short-circuit due to a break of the ribbon, which forms the boundary
of the electric field for beam extraction. Now 50-kW beam is
delivered to users at the Hadron Experimental Facility to produce
more results.
We have just returned from the European Spallation Source (ESS)
in Lund, Sweden. We held the 2nd collaboration meeting with ESS. In
addition to the general progress report from each side, the meeting
focused on the accelerator, instrument, target, and radiation safety.
Obviously, J-PARC and ESS have a lot in common and we have many joint
activities already. We concluded that we should explore additional
open exchanges between the two facilities.
In addition to this international collaboration, we are
strengthening our tie with universities. There will be more
university branches at J-PARC, which will provide more opportunities
for universities to fully utilize J-PARC facilities for their
research and education. We are also preparing several cross-
appointment cases with universities.
Based on the high-power beams, supported by the robust targetry,
and even more powered by the collaborations with other institutions
both international and domestic, we would like to share more
excitement with users and the public!
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2. [Accelerator Division] by Kazuo HASEGAWA
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STABLE OPERATION OF THE ACCELERATORS FROM OCTOBER TO DECEMBER
A new operation run started at the beginning of October after
the summer shutdown. Accelerator study work at beam currents of 5 mA,
50 mA, and 40 mA was carried out at the linac. The study work
followed at the 3 GeV Rapid Cycling Synchrotron (RCS) and Main Ring
synchrotron (MR) at the linac beam current of 40 mA, which was for
user operation. The main purposes of the study were to reproduce the
accelerator parameters, confirmation of performance of some new
components installed during the summer shutdown, new parameter survey
for lower beam loss, etc.
On October 17, the beam delivery to the neutrino experimental
facility (NU) was resumed at the beam power of 160 kW. The beam power
was increased to 450 kW as the vacuum pressure improved at the MR.
After the fine tuning of the MR, we delivered beam at 470 kW, which
was at a similar level as before the summer shutdown. In the runs
after the summer shutdown one year ago, we had several longer beam
trips due to some failures at the injection septum magnet power
supply, at the new power supply for the quadrupole magnets, and at
the radio frequency sources. We made some improvements and treatment
for these problems. The availability in the runs of October to
December for the NU was improved to about 86 percent this year while
it was 75 percent in 2016.
The neutron production target was replaced with a newly designed
one during the summer shutdown. On October 24, the user operation of
the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) was
resumed at the same power level of 150 kW as before the summer
shutdown. After a few days of pilot operation, we increased the power
to 300 kW on October 27. The operation was rather smooth until the
morning of December 22, as scheduled. The availability of the MLF was
high: about 91 percent from October to December, since we had no
serious troubles at the linac, the RCS and the MLF.
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3. [Particle and Nuclear Physics Division] by H. SAKO, T. TAKAHASHI,
T. ISHIDA, S. MIHARA, and T. MIBE
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TOPICAL WORKSHOP ON HADRON PHYSICS AND INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ON
STRANGENESS NUCLEAR PHYSICS (H. SAKO and T. TAKAHASHI)
Topical workshop on hadron physics and International School on
Strangeness Nuclear Physics were held at J-PARC.
Reimei workshop "Hadronic resonances and dense matter" hosted by
Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), JAEA, and co-hosted by
J-PARC was held on Dec. 11-13 at Ibaraki Quantum Beam Research Center
(IQBRC) in Tokai
(http://asrc.jaea.go.jp/soshiki/gr/hadron/workshop/reimei2017/).
There were many interesting invited talks and lively discussions were
conducted on the topics of hadron experiments at J-PARC. In addition,
there were poster presentations mainly by graduate students. The
number of participants was 74, including 28 international
participants.
International School for Strangeness Nuclear Physics (SNP School
2017) was successfully held from Dec. 14 to 15 at Tokai
(http://www.rcnp.osaka-u.ac.jp/~snp2017/index.html). This is the
sixth school starting from 2012 at Tokai and Sendai. Lectures in a
wide range of fields
(on quarks, hadrons, hyper-nuclei, cold atoms, and astrophysics)
were given by five leading physicists. Also, participants visited
experimental facilities at J-PARC. School students gave poster and
oral presentations on their research. Hashimoto Prize named in honor
of Prof. Hashimoto, the founder of this school, went to Mr.
Yuichi Toyama (Tohoku Univ.) for his good presentation, and School
Incentive Prizes went to 4 other students. Asian Nuclear Physics
Association (ANPhA) Prize also went to Mr. Toyama and Mr. Tokieda.
The number of participants was 63 including school students,
lecturers, and organizers. The next school will be held in autumn
2018 at Osaka University.
J-PARC NEUTRINO FACILITY IN OPERATION WITH 475 KW RECORD BEAM POWER
(by T. ISHIDA)
The neutrino experimental facility (neutrino beamline) at J-PARC
ran its operation from October to December for the T2K experiment.
Recently the beam power has reached a new record value, 475 kW. The
beam is stable in the operation with anti-neutrino mode. The
accumulated protons-on-target (POT) is about 3.8x10^20 as of Dec. 20.
In coming 2018 spring to summer we aim to double the statistics of
anti-neutrino mode data, to search for the anti-electron neutrino
appearance signal.
STATUS OF THE COHERENT MUON TO ELECTRON TRANSITION (COMET)
(by S. MIHARA)
The COMET experiment aims to search for the lepton-flavor
violating muon reaction, mu-e conversion, with sensitivity better
than 10^{-14} in Phase I.
Construction of the new proton beam line is underway to
transport a specially prepared pulsed proton beam to the COMET
experiment. Concrete casting for the beam line wall in the Hadron
Hall will be completed in Dec. 2017. Beam line elements installation
will start in 2018.
Detector preparation is also in progress by the collaboration.
As most of the detector elements have to be located in a high-
radiation environment in COMET, a careful check of the electronics
components against radiation is mandatory. The test is conducted
using both gamma-ray and neutron sources.
STATUS OF THE MUON G-2/ ELECTRIC DIPOLE MOMENT (EDM) (E34)
(by T. MIBE)
The E34 collaboration prepares for precision measurements of
muon anomalous magnetic moment and electric dipole moment. The
collaboration made preparations for a document summarizing updates to
incorporate recommendations given by the focused review committee,
and they revised the technical design report (TDR) accordingly.
The first demonstration of muon acceleration with Radio
Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) was successful at the Materials and Life
Science Experimental Facility (MLF). In this test, negatively charged
muonium atoms at sub-keV energy were accelerated to 90 keV with the
RFQ for the first time in the world.
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4. [Materials and Life Science Division] by Toshiji KANAYA
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NEUTRON PRODUCTION OPERATION AT 300 KW; BACK TO 2014 LEVEL
1) Neutron Source
On October 24, the neutron production with a new mercury target
vessel began for the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility
(MLF) user programs at 300 kW. Current mercury target vessel has an
improved monolithic structure at the joint with ribs between the
inner mercury vessel and outer water shroud in view of removing the
number of weld lines that could be a factor of crack propagation from
high thermal stress generated by repeated beam trips during the
operating period. It also has a narrow mercury flow channel at the
front of the target and equips a gas micro-bubbles generation system
as a measure of suppressing pitting damage induced by high power
pulsed proton beam injection. The user program ended on December 22
with a good availability of 90.8% of the scheduled beam time of 52
days. Next neutron production operation will begin on January 10,
2018 after a short maintenance.
THE 9TH AONSA NEUTRON SCHOOL / THE 2ND NEUTRON AND MUON SCHOOL WAS
HELD
260 NEUTRON GENERAL PROPOSALS HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FOR THE 2018A PERIOD
2) Neutron Instruments and Science
After the summer shutdown, user program of 2017A period was
resumed from October 24. From November 16, 2017B period was started.
>From 2017B period, a part of VIN ROSE (the spin-echo suite at BL06)
has been added to the user program.
The 9th AONSA Neutron School / the 2nd Neutron and Muon School
was held in November 16-20. 49 young researchers and graduate
students from Korea, Australia, Indonesia, India, China, Taiwan,
Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, Viet Nam, Nepal, United Kingdom, and
the Russian Federation, as well as Japan participated in the school.
>From the neutron groups, 10 instruments contributed to hands-on
experiments and 43 of 49 participants enjoyed neutron experiments.
Call for General proposals and New User Promotion proposals for
the 2018A period was closed on November 7 and we received 260 neutron
proposals. Those proposals will be sent to the Neutron Science
Proposal Review Committee / the Proposal Evaluation Committee for
reviewing process. Final results will be sent to users in February.
Announcement on call for Long Term proposals with beamtime
allocation starting in 2018B is opened. All proposers are required a
two-step submission of their proposals, and pre-submission term is
from January 12 to February 1.
USER PROGRAM RESUMED FOR 2017B TERM
3) Muon Science Facility (MUSE)
Following the completion of maintenance work at the end of the
summer shutdown, J-PARC resumed proton beam delivery to the MLF
facility in late October, 2017. Thanks to the successful replacement
of the neutron target vessel (which was in trouble previously), MLF
started to accept proton beams at 300 kW after a year of low power
operation. The single-pulse time structure was maintained for the
accelerator operation at this beam power, allowing muon users to keep
enjoying tidy time-differential muSR spectra with improved muon flux.
The user program was smoothly switched from 2017A to 2017B term after
a one-day maintenance on November 16, 2017. MUSE jointly hosted
AONSA/Neutron & Muon School held in November 16-20, accepting five
young researchers/ grad students from abroad for the muon course.
They enjoyed a series of introductory lectures and hands-on muSR
experiments on a sample of iridium oxide, learning how to use muons
for checking out magnetism with the ARTEMIS spectrometer installed at
the S1 area in MLF.
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5. [Nuclear Transmutation Division] by Toshinobu SASA
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SHOWING ACCELERATOR-DRIVEN SYSTEM IN SANCTUARY OF NUCLEAR ENERGY
In the middle of September, General Conference of International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was held in IAEA headquarters in Vienna,
Austria. Decision makers for nuclear energy and application in every
member state were gathered in the conference. Japanese government
also attended the conference and also set up the exhibition booth to
inform Japanese activities for nuclear applications. The theme of the
exhibition is "Life, Safety and Prosperity". Based on the lessons
learned from the accidents in Fukushima-daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
(NPP), Japan's efforts to pursue the peaceful uses of nuclear power
for people's livelihoods, safety and prosperity, was provided to the
government officials gathered from all over the world and experts in
the field of nuclear science and technology. Accelerator-driven
System (ADS) was exhibited as one of the showpieces for innovative
technological application of nuclear energy, together with the latest
3.5 generation pressurized water reactor concept, underwater robot to
survey the damaged reactor vessels in Fukushima-daiichi NPP etc. More
than 800 specialists visited our booth and learned the progress of
nuclear science after the Fukushima accidents. The model of ADS is
installed as a permanent exhibit at the entrance of the lead-bismuth
experiment lab in J-PARC.
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6. [Safety Division]
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THE EMERGENCY DRILL ASSUMING A RADIATION WORKER CONTAMINATION WAS
HELD
The emergency drill assuming a radiation exposure accident was
held on Nov. 16.
It was assumed that a radiation worker was contaminated by water
containing tritium in the Neutrino Experimental Facility and the
worker needed decontamination of his/her whole body.
In training, measures to prevent the contamination spread at the
site, transportation and decontamination of the contaminated worker,
and internal exposure measurement by exhalation measurement were
performed.
FISCAL 2017 J-PARC SAFETY AUDIT
The fiscal 2017 J-PARC safety audit was conducted by two new
auditors on Dec. 4. The center director, deputy director, and the
safety division explained the outline of safety management work at
the J-PARC Center. Furthermore, the Material and Life Science
Division was interviewed about the safe work operated by staff
members of the neutron source section and issues concerning the
safety of users. The auditors gave us valuable suggestions for future
safety efforts.
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7. [Editorial Note]
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Editorial Board:
Toshifumi TSUKAMOTO (Chair): toshifumi.tsukamoto@kek.jp
Kaoru SHIBATA: shibata.kaoru@ jaea.go.jp
Takashi ITO: itou.takashi@jaea.go.jp
Dick MISCHKE (English Editor): mischke@triumf.ca
Junko BEANBLOSSOM (Secretary): beanblossom.junko@jaea.go.jp
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