Friday 08 August 2008 1:43:45 am

Operational safety

WARNING: All or part of this forum post may be confusing or unclear.

The size of the LHC constitutes an exceptional engineering challenge with unique safety issues.

While operating, the total energy stored in the magnets is 10 GJ, and the two beams carry an overall energy that reaches 724 MJ. This amount of energy could be compared to the kinetic energy of a TGV (French high-speed train) running at 222 km/h (139 mph), or the detonation energy of 173 kilograms (380 lb) of TNT, whereas the 10 GJ stored in magnets is 2.4 tons of TNT or the heat from the burning of 300 litres (80 gallons) of petrol.

Loss of only 10−7 parts of the beam is sufficient to quench a superconducting magnet, while the beam dump must absorb an energy equivalent to a typical air-dropped bomb. These immense energies are even more impressive when one considers how little matter is carrying it. Under nominal operating conditions (2808 bunches per beam, 1.15×1011 protons per bunch), the beam pipes contain 1.0×10-9 grams of hydrogen, which, in standard conditions for temperature and pressure, would fill the volume of one grain of fine sand.

Childhood is short, maturity is forever. ~Calvin