Speaker
Description
The CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is equipped with two external beam dumps, designed in order to absorb the entire energy of the accelerator, which reached 320 MJ/dump during LHC Run2 (2015-2018). During that period several operational challenges were encountered in the operation of the dumps; several mitigation measures were implemented in the spare dumps during Long Shutdown 2 (2019-2021), while the old operational dumps were removed from service. Following a core endoscopic inspection on the latter, damage was observed in some of the absorber components, specifically in some high-density disks of extruded graphite. Given the importance of the potential impact on LHC operation during Run3 as well as in view of the High Luminosity LHC upgrades, it was therefore decided to execute a complete dump autopsy in order inspect in detail the core components. An ad-hoc area has been designed to this purpose and two different & independent methods developed to access the internal core.
The following contribution will summarize the observations, the technical infrastructure put in place to autopsy the dump, the cutting procedure and return of experience as well as the early observations, including implications for the operational dumps as well as for the construction of the spares.
| Themes for the contribution | 3 Post-irradiation examination: |
|---|
