Leak Tightness of LHC Cold Vacuum Systems

The cold vacuum systems of the LHC machine have been in operation since 2008. While a number of acceptable helium leaks were known to exist prior to cool down and have not significantly evolved over the last years, several new leaks have occurred which required immediate repair activities or mitigating solutions to permit operation of the LHC. The LHC vacuum system is described together with a summary and timetable of known air and helium leaks and their impact on the functioning of the cryogenic and vacuum systems. Where leaks have been investigated and repaired, the cause and failure mechanism is described. We elaborate the mitigating solutions that have been implemented to avoid degradation of known leaks and minimize their impact on cryogenic operation and LHC availability, and finally a recall of the consolidation program to be implemented in the next LHC shutdown.