Commissioning of the LHC Current Leads

The powering of the LHC superconducting magnets relies on more than 3000 current leads transporting the current to/from the cryogenic environment and rated at currents ranging from 60 A to 13000 A. The design of these leads, about 1000 of which are based on high temperature superconducting material, was entirely done at CERN, where prototype assemblies were also assembled and tested, while the series production and testing was done in external laboratories and companies on the basis of build-to-print specifications. This report summarizes the results of the tests performed during the commissioning of the LHC machine, when the leads underwent the thermal and electrical cycles necessary for the powering of the LHC superconducting circuits