Towards the end of the technical stop
After several weeks of hard work, the short technical stop of the LHC accelerator is coming to an end. Following a very intense campaign to repair and retest many thousand high voltage connectors, the upgraded magnet protection system is being commissioned. During this period, the current in the main dipole and quadrupole magnets is carefully increased up to 6kA, required to collide protons at 7TeV centre-of-mass energy. This has been achieved for most of the sectors.
The magnets and the protection system have responded well to the tests done so far, making it possible for the teams to plan for beam operation in the next week. As the last step, the magnets in all sectors will be powered together for several hours. Beam injection in the LHC will take place soon after these tests are finished.