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Pier Oddone to step down as Fermilab director

Fermilab Director Pier Oddone has decided to retire after eight years at the helm of America’s leading particle physics laboratory. Oddone will continue to serve as Fermilab director until July 1, 2013, while a committee appointed by the FRA Board Chairman conducts an international search for his successor.

Researchers’ insight on ‘pseudogap’ an important advance

More than two decades after scientists discovered a new type of copper-based high-temperature superconductor — energy-efficient material that can carry electricity without waste — Harvard physicists say they have unlocked the chemical secret that controls its “fool’s gold” phase, which mimics, but doesn’t have all the advantageous properties of, superconductivity.

MagLab receives renewal grant

A decision by the National Science Board (NSB) to award a five-year renewal grant to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab) will enable Florida and New Mexico to continue as research meccas for leading physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers from around the world.

NIH grants $1 million for new detectors at NSLS

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1 million dollars to purchase new precision detector technology for the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Maury Tigner retires

Maury Tigner has retired as Head of the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE) as of December 2011. Tigner’s work and contributions to accelerator physics and engineering span five decades, having begun in 1959 with the nearly single-handed design and construction of a 240 MeV electron storage-ring for...

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Mixed Refrigerant Cycles

Most cryogenic refrigeration systems, both large scale systems and cryocoolers, use helium as a working fluid. There are a number of advantages to helium, not the least of which is that helium remains a fluid down to the lowest achievable temperatures. In order to freeze helium, pressures of over 20...

Fountain Pumps and He II Phase Separators

Helium II (He II), the second liquid phase of the 4He isotope described in this column in Cold Facts Spring 2010 (http://2csa.us/he2), can be modeled as consisting of two interpenetrating fluids. One, the superfluid component, has zero viscosity and entropy and the other, the normal fluid component, has nonzero viscosity...

Turboexpanders

A vital technology in the refrigerators and liquefiers described in Cold Facts Volume 31 Number 3 is that of turboexpanders. These devices are rotating machines in which the process fluid (e.g., helium) does work against the turboexpander while moving from high pressure to a lower pressure and thus is cooled....

Food Processing

Cryogenics and Food The industrial gas industry provides a host of products and services related to food. The various gases have useful and sometimes fascinating applications in food industry. “The food industry is not a homogenous industry. The needs of customers processing hamburger vs. poultry vs. strawberries vs. seafood, for...

Primary Standards

Elie K. Track Hypres, Inc. elie@hypres.com http://www.hypres.com/ Primary standards involve the exact definition and realization of units of measurement for various quantities, time, length, mass, voltage, resistance, current, etc. International agreements based on the latest scientific knowledge define those units, and their realizations vary depending on the unit itself. For...

Shrink Fitting

Robin A. Rhodes Cryogenic Institute of New England, Inc. rrhodes@nitrofreeze.com Shrink fitting, (or “compression fitting” as it is sometimes called), is a method used to insert a pin or bushing into a housing or other assembly requiring an extremely tight tolerance fit. It can be used as an alternative to...

Telecommunications

From the Winter 2004 issue of Cold Facts magazine The recent M-Calc IV — 4th Industry Assessment workshop discussing military and commercial applications for low-cost cryocoolers, held in November in San Diego, highlighted progress being made in cryogenics as applied in telecommunications. The reliability and long lifetime of projects now...

An Issue of Pressure and Flow Rate in a Supply Tank

Please help solve this problem: A supply tank requires a vaporizer to generate sufficient pressure to pump stored fluid up into a vehicle or tank. The available head is limited as the tank level falls and it is important to minimize the system pressure drop to maintain the desired flow...

Using MLI on VJ Line Joints or Cryo Storage Tanks

When installing Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) blankets on VJ line joints or cryo storage tanks should they be wrapped and tied down tight or loose? These are usually pre-cut to size. Also should they have an access hole at the point of where the molecular sieve is installed to help...