Superconductive technologies for the Large Hadron collider at CERN

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project is the largest plant based on superconductivity and cryogenics: 27 km of tunnel filled with superconducting magnets and other equipment that will be kept at 1.9 K. The dipole magnets have to generate a minimum magnetic field of 8.3 T to allow collisions of proton beams at an energy of 14 TeV in the centre of mass. The construction of LHC started in 1997 at CERN in Geneva and required 10 years of research and development on fine- filament NbTi superconducting wires and cables, on magnet technology and on He-II refrigerators. In particular the project needs the production of about 1000 tons of high-homogeneity NbTi with current densities of more than 2000 A mm/sup -2/ at 9 T and 1.9 K, with tight control also of all other cable properties such as magnetization, interstrand resistance and copper resistivity. The paper describes the main dipole magnets and reviews the most significant steps in the research and development, focusing on the issues related to the conductor, to the magnet stability and protection and to the development of 13 kA current leads based on high-temperature superconductor materials. (9 refs).