Exceptional machines call for exceptional operations. Two large helium tanks for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) were installed at Point 1 in June, and two more at Point 5 in July. They will store the helium for the refrigerators that will cool the HL-LHC’s new focusing magnets on both sides of the ATLAS and CMS experiments.

Each tank weighs over 62 tonnes and is 28 metres long and 3.5 metres in diameter. The tanks will each be able to store 250 cubic metres of gaseous helium at a pressure of 20 bars at room temperature, representing a weight of around 800 kg. As the tanks were manufactured in Portugal, it took more than eight days to transport them to CERN under escort as an abnormal load.

The new refrigerators – one for each point – will be delivered next year. “We have a good year of work ahead of us to install the complete infrastructure and connect the tanks to the helium distribution system,” explains Antonio Suraci from the Cryogenics group.

Around 130 tonnes of helium are needed to cool the superconducting magnets of the LHC and its experiments. When the HL-LHC is up and running, it will consume almost the same amount of helium, but the design of the cryogenic system will have to be modified to supply this new equipment on each side of the ATLAS and CMS experiments.