Water Leak Incident at MaxIV

A perfect use case for remote monitoring with Blinky-Lite

The water leak detection system for the 3 GeV ring at MaxIV laboratory has been installed for almost one year. Since the installation, no leak has been detected and one might begin to wonder if the system is needed at all.

However, that all changed during the weekend of Week 27. MaxIV began its summer shutdown at the beginning of Week 26. During the summer shutdown most of the staff leaves for vacation and the control room is not manned on weekends. However, on Friday 5-July, the Blinky-Lite water leak detector system at MaxIV sent out a notification that there was a leak in Sector 14. At first the leak subsided but then returned and grew steadily worse over the weekend. Since there was no staff available on the MaxIV site during the weekend, repair crews could not investigate until the following Monday. On Monday 8-July, the repair crew found a cooling hose leaking in Sector 14 and promptly repaired it.

Since water leaks rarely get better by themselves and often can become catastrophically worse, the prompt notification to remote observers by the Blinky-Lite water leak detector system during a vacation period when few staff were present probably saved MaxIV from a costly repair and cleanup.