Consolidation of the LHC Superconducting Circuits: A Major Step towards 14 TeV Collisions

Following the incident in one of the main dipole circuits of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in September 2008, a detailed analysis of all magnet circuits has been performed by a dedicated task force. This analysis has revealed critical issues in the design of the 13 kA splices between the superconducting dipole and quadrupole magnets. These splices have to be consolidated before increasing the beam energy above 4 TeV and operating the LHC at 6.5-7 TeV per beam. The design of the consolidated 13 kA splices is complete and has been reviewed by an international committee of experts. Also, all other types of superconducting circuits have been thoroughly screened for potential safety issues and several important recommendations were established. They were critically assessed and the resulting actions are presented. In addition to the work on the 13 kA splices, other interventions will be performed during the first long shut-down of the LHC to consolidate globally all superconducting circuits. The associated quality control has been defined. Schedule constraints, repair production rate, available space and resources are presented as well.