LHC accelarator

August 11

Cooldown of six out of eight secors in progress. Figure below shows the tempurature profile along the three km of the sector 12.

sector 12

16 July

The foreseen shutdown work on the LHC is proceeding well, including the powering tests with the new quench protection system. However, during the past week vacuum leaks have been found in two "cold" sectors of the LHC.

It is now foreseen that the LHC will be closed up and ready for beam injection by mid-November.

6 July

All repairs in Sector 3-4, the sector damaged during the incident last September, have been completed and the sector has been closed up. Sector 4-5 is now at room temperature and tests are currently being carried out on the superconducting busbars .

22 June

Sector 4-5 is still being warmed to room temperature. In Sector 1-2 the repairs have been completed to all the electrical interconnections and the last ‘W bellow’ has been closed.

The beam lines in Sector 6-7 have been closed.

18 June

Sector 4-5 is being warmed to room temperature. The sector was previously warmed to 80 Kelvin in order to perform a test on the copper component of the busbars at non-superconducting temperatures.

8 June

In Sector 3-4 the full length of the beam lines have been closed and work is currently ongoing to finish the final electrical interconnections. Once that is completed, work will start to close up the W bellows.

25 May

The installation work on the pressure release ports of the inner triplets magnets has now been completed. New test diagnostics are being developed to measure the electrical resistance of the copper component of the superconducting busbars.

To find out more about the new quench protection system (QPS), visit LHC quech protection system.

21 May

New test diagnostics are being developed to measure the electrical resistance of the copper component of the superconducting busbars.

24 April

Work to install the new pressure release ports has now started in the areas outside the arc sections – in particular on the inner triplets (the focusing magnets either side of the collision point). The ports have been slightly modified to fit the geometry of these magnets.

30 April

The 53rd and final magnetfor the Sector 3-4 repairs was lowered today, marking the end of the repair work above ground. With all the magnets now underground, work in the tunnel will be focused on connecting the magnets together, while on the surface teams will be shifting their attention to replenishing the LHC’s supply of spare magnets.

18 April

A new test has been developed to measure the electrical resistance of the connection joining the ‘busbars’ of the superconducting magnets together.The new test allows the electrical continuity of this copper part to be checked.

16 April

The 39th and final repaired dipole magnet was lowered into Sector 3-4 and installed today. This is the last of the LHC’s easily recognizable 15-metre-long blue superconducting dipoles required for the 3-4 repair.

6 April

The damaged area of Sector 3-4 is buzzing with activity. Teams are working through the night and on weekends to install the replacement magnets at a rate of 6-7 per week Work to fit the replacement magnet in Sector 1-2 has been completed.

The campaign to install the new helium pressure release system is progressing well. The first sector to be fully completed is 5-6, with all 168 individual pressure release ports installed. These ports will allow a greater rate of helium escape in the event of a sudden increase in pressure of the insulation vacuum.

23 March

In Sector 3-4 repair work on the cryogenic pipeline that supplies liquid helium to the magnets has been completed. During the incident in September last year some of the connecting pipes between the magnets and the pipeline were damaged. These have now been completely repaired.

The three teams working to install the new pressure release system have reached ‘cruising speed’, with a total of 102 new valves installed this week.

6 March

Last week the Enhanced Quench Protection system had a full review from a panel made up of experts from other HEP labs from around the world.

27 February

In SM18 six magnets have been cold tested with good results. It has also been a good week for cyostating with five more magnets completed.

In sector 3-4 interconnection work and welding has started in the area damaged on 19 September last year. Interconnection work is also ongoing on the replacement magnet for the faulty dipole removed from sector 1-2.

Three separate teams are now working in the three sectors to install the new DN200 pressure release nozzles.

23 February

All replacement magnets required for Sectors 3-4, 1-2 and 6-7 have now been cryostated. Work is continuing to cryostat six additional spare dipoles as a precautionary measure.

The replacement magnet for the faulty dipole removed from Sector 1-2 has now been installed in the tunnel. Surveyors have checked the alignment and the interconnection work has already started.

09 February

The consolidation campaign, managed by the Quench Protection team, is advancing well. Phase 1 of the campaign is focused on the new protection system designed to monitor the superconducting busbars.

30 January

Dipole MB2334, which was found to have an internal splice resistance of 100 nano-ohms and was removed from Sector 1-2 has now been opened. It has been confirmed that there was a lack of solder on the splice joint.

26 January

Work to consolidate the planning of surface and tunnel activities for both magnet and non-magnet related tasks is going ahead. Dipole MB2334, which was found to have an internal splice resistance of 100 nano-ohms and was removed from Sector 1-2 last week, has now been de-cryostated and the cold mass is being opened.

16 January

The civil engineering work to repair the slight damage to the concrete has been completed. As of last week all magnets in the damaged area of sector 3-4 have been removed and raised to the surface. Four replacement magnets have been lowered and installed, and by the end of this week this figure should total several.