Firing up the LCLS: Shot 1, denied.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
10:18 am The first shot came with a mouse click. One blip later the main control center was thrown into mild confusion -- the beam was intercepted and stopped by a safety system that should have been disabled. The guilty component, a "beam shut off ion chamber," or "bsoic" (or "be-zoh-ic" as they say), is an important fail safe device that prevents the beam from operating when personnel are present in the tunnel. But this particular bsoic is supposed to turn off when the facility goes into "restricted access" mode, as in when they are trying to fire the beam. Word is it will take about an hour to reset the system and work out why this device interfered with the party.
There's a pool running among the physicists on how many shots it will take to reach the beam dump. The man with the mouse button, Paul Emma, bet 2 shots; the others range from 1 to a 100. Daniel Ratner bet 9 x Pi, which I think might capture the spirit best, considering the number of unknowns involved. Not sure whether the first shot counts, considering the shot didn't make out of the sections already commissioned. Good news for Paul, who basically gets a do-over now, although 2 shots seems more than a little optimistic. posted by Brad Plummer @ 10:18am
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