12th Workshop on Accelerator Operations

While a large percentage of the BNL population were required to lock-down, NSLS-II remained running, with 3 beamlines running studies on COVID-19 and potential vaccines. For 4 months, we operated in a mode dubbed Min-Safe– having bare minimum number on site for safe operations and study. The effects of no longer being in-person were drastic in nearly every part of operations.

In this talk I will highlight several major processes for NSLS-II that were forced to change very quickly, and what adaptations were made. Main focus will be the impact on run schedule, priority given to running vs repairs, and the added hurdles to maintaining the accelerator. I will also detail several nuances of our maintenance-planning, and how it has changed permanently since Min-Safe.