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Fabricating A Cold Distributor
As the Jefferson Lab prepares to double the power of its accelerator to 12 GeV, several cryogenics systems need to be built or improved. Cryogenics makes it possible to achieve ultra-cold (-456 degrees F) operation of the accelerator and associated experimental equipment. Here a lab worker is busy welding internal components for the cryogenics distribution can for Hall D.
<<< Jay Noble welding components on a cryogenic distribution can.
Clean Tumble
Ari Palczewski fills a superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavity with coarse media used to polish the interior of the cavity. When filled, the cavity is loaded into a centrifugal barrel polishing machine - the large blue machine in the background - and rotated. Centrifugal barrel polishing is used at Jefferson Lab to repair cavities with defects. It's an environmentally friendly process that reduces the need for wet chemistry polishing.
<<< Preparing an SRF cavity for polishing.
A Peek Inside
Jefferson Lab's main accelerator, CEBAF, is in the midst of an upgrade that will enhance its research capabilities by doubling its energy, along with other upgrades and additions. Here is a view inside the outer shell of one of the new accelerator sections, called a cryomodule, during the assembly process.
<<< A look inside a 30-foot-long C100 cryomodule.
Stringing A Fine Instrument
Five new detector segments, called drift chamber assemblies, are being constructed and tested at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. These segments will be installed in Jefferson Lab's Hall B for the 12 GeV Upgrade. Once completed, this drift chamber assembly will contain about 5,000 wires.
<<< Arthur Bern, an Old Dominion University physics undergraduate, affixes alligator clip to a wire he's just strung.
Keeping It Clean
Critical to the success of the SRF equipment fabricated at Jefferson Lab is that all of it be exceptionally clean. The slightest impurities, no matter how small, can adversely impact the SRF equipment, and delay or halt the lab's nuclear physics experiments. In this photo, Shahid Ahmed is using a plasma cleaning process to remove contaminants from a niobium cavity.
<<< Shahid Ahmed plasma cleaning an SRF cavity.
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