Development of cryogenic installations for large liquid argon neutrino detectors

A proposal for a very large liquid argon (68,000 kg) based neutrino detector is being studied. To validate the design principles and the detector technology, and to gain experience in the development of the cryostats and the cryogenic systems needed for such large experiments, several smaller scale installations will be developed and implemented, at Fermilab and CERN. The cryogenic systems for these installations will be developed, constructed, installed and commissioned by an international engineering team. These installations shall bring the required cooling power under specific conditions to the experiments for the initial cool-down and the long term operation, and shall also guarantee the correct distribution of the cooling power within the cryostats to ensure a homogeneous temperature distribution within the cryostat itself. The cryogenic systems shall also include gaseous and liquid phase argon purification devices to be used to reach and maintain the very stringent purity requirements needed for these installations (parts per trillion of oxygen equivalent contamination). This paper gives an overview of the installations involved in these cryogenic projects, describes the functional demands made to these cryogenic systems and presents the initial studies on which these future cryogenic systems will be based.