Stochastic cooling works by measuring and correcting the path deviations of individual ion bunches. As a rule, the new injector is used for very expensive elements, such as enriched isotopes. In other words, it is not uncommon for five experiments to be supplied with beams in parallel. The accelerator facility is in operation for 5,000 to 6,000 hours per year. The accelerator facility and the beam transport systems are monitored and controlled by a shift supervisor and two operators in a central control room for all the accelerators.
Specialists are on call round the clock for more complicated malfunctions.
This is the most urgent task, especially in view of the tumor therapy project. The aim of this project is to inject so many ions into the SIS that a further increase becomes impossible due to the mutual repulsion of the charged ions. In other words, the SIS is to be filled up to the space-charge limit, and this is to be done for all ions. Although such a feat is already possible for light ions, researchers need a 500-fold improvement if they are to reach this limit for very heavy ions such as uranium. This injector has been designed to deliver a short, intensive beam-pulse to the SIS about once every second.