Operational experience with machine protection system for high current, high brightness accelerator

The Low Energy RHIC Electron Cooler (LEReC), the world’s first electron cooler utilizing an RF electron accelerator, was designed to operate with 1.6-2.6 MeV electron beams of up to 140 kW beam power. The LEReC successfully worked through RHIC Runs 2019-2021, substantially increasing RHIC luminosity, and has been routinely used for various studies since then. A dedicated, highly configurable Machine Protection System (MPS) is a critical part of the LEReC. This paper summarizes our experience with operating the LEReC MPS.