From Near Absolute Zero To Room Temperature: The LHC Warm-up Begins

By Marta Vargas Jorba, Jerome Panigoni, Anne-Laure Perrot

On behalf of the LS3 coordination.

Figure 1. Liquid helium storage.                                                                                                          Figure 2. 600kW warm-up helium heaters.

The LHC is warming up for a major overhauling. For only the third time since it began operating in 2008, the whole machine is slowly returning to room temperature after running at close to absolute zero. Warming up more than 36,000 tonnes of cryogenic equipment across 27 kilometres of tunnel requires meticulous planning at every step.

Read Entire Article