Operations and Performance of RHIC as a Cu-Cu Collider

The 5
^th
year of RHIC operations, started in November 2004 and expected to last till June 2005, consists of a physics run with Cu-Cu collisions at 100 GeV/u followed by one with polarized protons (pp) at 100 GeV [1]. We will address here the overall performance of the RHIC complex used for the first time as a Cu-Cu collider, and compare it with previous operational experience with Au, PP and asymmetric d-Au collisions. We will also discuss operational improvements, such as a squeeze to 85cm in the high luminosity interaction regions from the design value of 1m, system improvements, machine performance and limitations, and address reliability and uptime issues.