• B. Goddard, I.V. Agapov, E. Carlier, L. Ducimetière, E. Gallet, M. Gyr, L.K. Jensen, O.R. Jones, V. Kain, T. Kramer, M. Lamont, M. Meddahi, V. Mertens, T. Risselada, J.A. Uythoven, J. Wenninger, W.J.M. Weterings
  CERN, Geneva

Initial commissioning of the LHC beam dump system with beam took place in August and September 2008. The preparation, setting-up and the tests performed are described together with results of the extractions of beam into the dump lines. Analysis of the first detailed aperture measurements of extraction channels and kicker performance derived from dilution sweep shapes are presented. The performance of the other equipment subsystems is summarised, in particular that of the dedicated dump system beam instrumentation.

• J.A. Uythoven, J. Axensalva, V. Baggiolini, E. Carlier, E. Gallet, B. Goddard, V. Kain, M. Lamont, N. Magnin
  CERN, Geneva

After each beam dump in the LHC automatic post-operational checks are made to guarantee that the last beam dump has been executed correctly and that the system can be declared to be 'as good as new' before the next injection is allowed. The analysis scope comprises the kicker waveforms, redundancy in kicker generator signal paths and different beam instrumentation measurements. This paper describes the implementation and the operational experience of the internal and external post-operational checks of the LHC beam dumping system during the commissioning of the LHC without beam and during the first days of beam operation.