Facility Updates

Facility Updates Archive: 2008 | 07

Chi-Chang's Corner
NSLS Receives $1 Million in Supplemental Funding
As a result of the supplemental appropriations bill recently signed by the President, the NSLS will receive about $1 million. This additional funding will help retain essential staff, enable the purchasing of critical spare parts, assist in moving forward with our major upgrade programs, and help maintain staffing levels in the future. We’ll also recover some of the operating hours that were cut when the original budget shortfall was announced. In other news: funding for the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium has been renewed; we’ve begun to implement Human Performance Initiative (HPI) training; our second annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Workshop was another success; the NSLS Summer Sunday attracted more than 800 members of the local community; our machine operations staff is doing a great job handling electrical trips; we mourn the loss of NSLS user Ted Madey; and a team of researchers used the NSLS to solve the structure of p300/CBP, an enzyme that is linked to numerous human cancers.

Safety Update
Emergency Preparedness
As the Laboratory completes a series of emergency preparedness drills and assessments of the site, it’s important to note that the NSLS is well prepared for an emergency event because our staff members, along with the BNL Emergency Services staff, have put considerable effort into that preparation. Emergency response at the NSLS is complicated. An obvious important part of the program is maintaining strong communication both when planning response to an event and during the actual event. With so many visitors and so many people moving in and out of the building, assuring that everyone knows what to do during an event is an important challenge.

Notes from the UEC
Past and Present
Stony Brook University professor John Parise took over the post of UEC Chair for NIST scientist Dan Fischer in May. Read more for their thoughts on the activities of the last year and the plans for the future.

NSLS-II Update
User Workshop Set for July 17-18
Brookhaven National Laboratory will host a workshop on July 17-18, 2007 to update the user community on the status and plans for NSLS-II and to provide an opportunity for user input and feedback. One of the goals of this workshop is to describe the conceptual design and current status of the facility. Workshop participants will learn the latest details on the designs of the accelerator, experimental, and conventional facilities. And Dr. Patricia Dehmer, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences, will provide the DOE perspective on NSLS-II.

Accelerator Update
Spring Shutdown Completed Successfully, Ahead of Time
The spring 2008 shutdown has just been completed with aplomb due to the excellent teamwork of the staff of the Accelerator & Operations; Environmental, Safety, Health & Quality; and Experimental Systems divisions. After a month of extensive work involving installations, upgrades, and maintenance, the entire accelerator complex was brought back online without a stitch of downtime.