So what is an Operator, anyway ???

At TRIUMF, Operators are a bit of a special breed. Other than the experimenters, we are the only people at TRIUMF who work shifts. TRIUMF runs continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365+ days a year. The Operations group has people on site at all times. Most of our work is done from the console in the cyclotron Control Room.

An operator's primary duty is to run the cyclotron and beamlines which provide the beam the experimenters use for their experiments. This can be as simple as sitting and watching the cyclotron run when everything is working perfectly (a fairly rare occurrence) to starting up and tuning the beam through the cyclotron and beamlines until it is ready for delivery to the experimenters. There are probably ten thousand or more separate devices which need to be turned on or adjusted in order to get the cyclotron up and running. Fortunately we have a number of computers to assist us in the task. Tuning the cyclotron and beamlines involves adjusting some or all of these devices in order to have the beam travel through the system with minimal losses. There is quite an art to this. Becoming good at it can take more than five years. If something goes wrong with the cyclotron tune it can degrade the performance of the cyclotron without stopping the beam. Finding the one device which is responsible for this can be a real detective job. Even if no devices fail the cyclotron tune can drift from optimum because of the number of devices involved and the fact that temperature, water pressure and a host of other factors can affect the output of power supplies etc.. We monitor the tune and adjust it if necessary. If a power supply does break we may also have to fix it, if it's after hours.

Since the operators are on site all the time we are also called on to do any number of other duties. These can range from fixing just about anything including toilets, computers, power supplies etc.. We are responsible for the entire TRIUMF site during off hours. We keep the keys, answer the phones etc. etc.

So... you want to be an Operator ?
then see :

OPS Shift Calendars

TRIUMF Homepage

&   Job Postings