Forum: How Would You Fix It?
One of the important parts of the LHC is a set of super-conducting magnets that guide and speed up the beam of protons in the two accelerator tubes. The magnets need to be kept at absolute-zero temperatures in order to achieve as minimum resistance as possible and are therefore cooled using liquid helium. Unfortunately, in 2008 one of the helium containers was punctured by an electrical arc and the helium was vaporised, increasing the pressure in the container extremely quickly. The pressure broke the container open and more than a tonne of helium filled the LHC tunnel. In about one third of a second, the enormous build-up of pressure set off a power explosion. The resulting shock wave lifted the 30-tonne magnets, so that they were half a meter or so off their mountings. Their repair took quite a long time; the LHC was not open again until 2012. Below, you can see three questions related to the repair. Answer at least two of the questions and respond to at least one contribution of a fellow student. 1) If you were one of the LHC engineers repairing the magnets, how would you do that? 2) What problems would you probably face? 3) What would you do to overcome the problems?