Refurbishment of SESAME’s microtron by replacing the subsystems of the up-graded BESSY I microtron currently in place by more modern ones is one of the tasks that has been on the agenda of the Technical Sector for a few months. This change will make the already-good reliability of the machine improve by leaps and bounds.
control rack of the microtron
The microtron is the first of the accelerators of SESAME. It emits bunches of electrons and accelerates them to 20 MeV. The electrons are then further accelerated through the booster and the storage ring, where they are kept at 2.5 GeV (99,9999979% of the speed of light) to produce the synchrotron light used for the scientific experiments.
Led by Anas Abbadi and Sofian Ja’far, in January this year, Mohammad Abu Gharbieh, Saif Al Zoubi, Samir Al Zoubi and Osama Khader in the joint control and power supply teams started replacing the central control rack of the microtron by a new, well organized, well wired, and well documented one. This was a major two-month task which was completed successfully (and on schedule) on 5 March with a thumbs up when the teams were able to see that the system worked properly and the microtron beam showed up smoothly with no side complications.
In parallel, the diagnostics team (Hussein Al Mohammad and Omar Kilani) refurbished the diagnostic signal connections and distribution hubs with new connections which means that all signals are now very clean.
The power supply team, Sofian and Sabri Shawar, are also working on the refurbishment of the auxiliary gun power supply, one of the most critical subsystems of the microtron.
The lockdown due to COVIC-19 has not halted work on refurbishment of the microtron, and from their respective homes Sofian, Anas and Darweesh Foudeh (RF engineer) have worked together to draw up the technical specifications for procurement of the new state-of-the-art solid state modulators that will replace the current Thyratron-based modulator. In true remote intersectoral cooperation, Majeda Salama and Ayman Al Zoubi in the Administrative Sector have now taken over and are preparing the necessary documents in order to issue a tender as soon as possible.
SESAME’s new 2.5 GeV storage ring was constructed with European Union funding in a project led and coordinated by CERN with support from SESAME. Refurbishment of the microtron is the first step in modernization of SESAME’s injector. In order to provide a Top-up injection in a longer term, a new injector will be studied composed of a Linac and a full energy Booster.