With LHO closed over the holidays, and O3 still taking place 24/7 over the holidays, Site-Walkthrus have been schedule to be performed by operators during their shifts (DAY). I performed one this morning per instructions here. Since inspection of the LVEA, EX VEA, EY VEA are required, these incursions would require us to go out of OBSERVING. I chose to lump those three inspections together to minimize/optimize time we were out of OBSERVING (where I would take H1 out of OBSERVING, walk through the LVEA, and then drive out to EY & then EX consecutively, AND then finally return H1 to OBSERVING & finish remaining items of the Walk-Through.)
This morning I had H1 down for 35min to run calibration measurements, I was going to tack on VEA incursions to this down time, but we received an Earthquake Alert, so instead, I took H1 to OBSERVING & monitored the EQ in case we needed to transition SEI_CONF to the EARTHQUAKE state (this wasn't needed). Instead, it was observed the Calibration measurement prossibly affected Calibration Lines. Took H1 out of Observing, fixed this, and then began VEA incursions. Here is log:
Duration Total of Site Walk-Thru: ~90min (18:14 - 19:45utc)
Duration out of OBSERVING: ~51min
Ice On Liquid Nitrogen Dewars
One item we were asked to check was the exhaust of the LN2 dewars as we drove the site. I wasn't totally sure where the exhaust was, but eventually figured it out.
As you inspect the dewars there is frost/ice build up at various points (i.e. input plumbing where Norco connects, output to VEAs, & output exhausts [see attached photos for examples]). I texted Chandra and she mentioned alot of this is normal, but she said posting photos is good. Found ice on exhausts at End Stations and LVEA. Notes:
Ice build up on LN2 exhaust looks normal, because the vertical pipe is not insulated and heat trace is not active. Thanks for checking, Corey.
TJ has updated the instructions so that we do not go into the VEAs if we are OBSERVING.