Commissioning and First Operation of Superconducting Links at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) now under commissioning at CERN is a 26.7 km collider based on several thousand high-field superconducting magnets, the majority of which operating in superfluid helium below 2 K and some isolated magnets operating in normal helium at 4.5 K. Four superconducting links (DSLs) of about 76 m in length and one of about 517 m in length, were designed, constructed and installed over a three year period. Their purpose is to transport current over long distances whenever underground LHC space constraints prevents to put power converters, current feed boxes and magnets in each others’ proximity. The four 76 m long DSLs transport current between current feed boxes and several of the isolated magnets, whereas the 517 m long DSL transports current between two current feed boxes. The links are comprised of cryogenic, vacuum-insulated, transfer lines housing one or more superconducting cables. The operating temperatures are about 5 K for the DSL part that houses the cable and about 60 K for the heat shield. Their commissioning and performance results at first operational experience in the beginning of 2008 are discussed.