[BNC-all] Nitrogen Issues at Birck

[Reger, Ronald K]

Dear All Birck Colleagues,

Today we ran out of liquid nitrogen at Birck due to the severe weather which caused travel and delivery problems with our LN2 supplier.  Gaseous nitrogen is produced from the LN2 so we ran low on gaseous utility nitrogen pressure as well.  This caused issues with the UPW system and other valves which rely on utility nitrogen.  Birck staff and trades we were able to temporarily plumb clean dry air as a substitution for the utility nitrogen, and return pressure levels to normal. 

We had to temporarily close the cleanroom tonight until the entire staff can get to work and fully assess the situation and implications of using CDA in this way.  We will know more and have a short-term direction tomorrow.  The real solution is to fill our LN2 tank, which will hopefully happen this week when Linde gets caught up with their delivery schedule.

Thanks for your support,

Ron