Norman Augustine to chair Fermilab director search committee
Norman R. Augustine, the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., has agreed to chair the search committee for the new Director of Fermilab.
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JSC’s historic vacuum chamber ready to test Hubble’s successor
An upgrade eight years in the making is complete, and Johnson Space Center is now home to the only vacuum chamber in the world that is large enough and cold enough to provide a space-like environment for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Fermilab physicists rework plans for LBNE
On August 28, officials from Fermilab presented their revised plan for the first stage of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) to a federal advisory panel.
X-rays reveal spin waves in two-dimensional high-temperature superconductors
Physicists working at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Switzerland’s Paul Scherrer Institute have revealed key quantum characteristics of high-temperature superconductors, demonstrating new experimental methods and breaking fundamental ground on these mysterious materials.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd to manufacture ITER Cryostat
The ITER cryostat will be the largest high-vacuum pressure chamber ever built. On August 17, a contract for the manufacturing of the 3,800-ton steel structure was signed with the Indian company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Ltd.
OSHA cites Plains Gas Solutions for violations after explosion and fire
The US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Plains Gas Solutions LLC in Eunice, Louisiana, for one willful and seven serious violations involving OSHA's process safety management standards following an explosion and fire that severely burned a worker.
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Joule-Thomson Effect
The Joule-Thomson (JT) effect is a thermodynamic process that occurs when a fluid expands from high pressure to low pressure at constant enthalpy (an isenthalpic process). Such a process can be approximated in the real world by expanding a fluid from high pressure to low pressure across a valve. Under...
Current Leads
One of the challenges of using superconducting magnets is the connection of the magnet to a room temperature power supply. This is accomplished via current leads. The trick is that current leads should ideally have a low heat leak, since they connect room temperature to cryogenic temperature, while at the...
Multilayer Insulation
Multilayer insulation (also referred to as superinsulation) is a key component in the reduction of heat leak to cryogenic systems due to thermal radiation. MLI consists of a series of uncooled reflective surfaces placed in the vacuum space between two surfaces, one warmer than the other. Generally speaking, for ideal...
Magnets
From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. Particle physics uses accelerators to recreate the conditions of the early universe in an attempt to piece together the complex puzzle of how we got to where we are today. These huge machines are used...
Energy Storage
From “Superconductivity: Present and Future Applications” by the Coalition for the Commercial Application of Superconductors. With power lines increasingly congested and prone to instability, strategic injection of brief bursts of real power can play a crucial role in maintaining grid reliability. Small-scale Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems, based on...
Astronomy
ASTRONOMY IN SPACE by Peter V. Mason, retired, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Visiting Associate, California Institute of Technology. Pmason@alumni.caltech.edu In thinking about the reasons to perform astronomy in space, we first consider the effect of the earth’s atmosphere. On a scale of decreasing energy, gamma rays, cosmic rays, X-rays and...
Cryocoolers
What is a Cryocooler? A mechanism that can extract heat from an object (cooler) and by doing so draw its temperature down below approximately 150 Kelvin (cryo). — (Courtesy Dr. Willy Gully) What is the difference between a Cryocooler and a Cryostat? A cryostat is any device designed to maintain...
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...
Separated layers of ice over a pipe
I want to know that why there are different layers of ice over a pipe carrying a cryogenic fluid, each layer separated with clear marks / lines? What do these layers signify?