SOR-ring failure

It was in the autumn of 1976 that the SOR-ring (synchrotron radiation storage ring) has commenced the regular operation. Since then, the period when the operation was interrupted due to the failures of SOR-ring itself is in total about 8 weeks. Failures and accidents have occurred most in the vacuum system. Those failure experiences are described on the vacuum, electromagnet, radio-frequency acceleration and beam transport systems with their interrupted periods. The eleven failures in the vacuum system have been reported, such as bellows breakage in a heating-evacuating period, leakage from the bellows of straight-through valves (made in U.S.A. and Japan), and leakage from the joint flange of the vacuum system. The longest interruption was 5 weeks due to the failure of a domestically manufactured straight-through valve. The failures of the electromagnet system involve the breakage in a cooling water system, short circuit of a winding in the Q magnet power transformer, blow of a fuse protecting the deflection magnet power source by the current less than the rating, and others. The failures of the RF acceleration system include the breakage of an output electronic tube the breakage of a cavity ceramic, RF voltage fluctuation due to the contact deterioration at a cavity electrode, and the failure of grid bias power source. It is necessary to select the highly reliable components for the vacuum system because the vacuum system failures require longer time for recovery, and very likely to induce secondary and tertiary failures. (Wakatsuki, Y.)