cryomodule
The 10-meter-long cryomodule, part of the PIP-II particle accelerator project at Fermilab, is now undergoing testing to validate all its components and finalize its design. In a few years, Fermilab and international partners will produce four similar cryomodules that will propel particles in the new linear accelerator.
NIU engineering students (from left) Caeden Keith, Stefan Nyholm and Svilen Batchkarov pose with their project and professor Tariq Shamim at NIU’s Senior Design Day on May 6. The team built a full-scale (10m long) mockup of PIP-II’s HB650 cryomodule for use fit checking and preparing test stand and accelerator locations for the real cryomodule.
Accelerator experts at three national labs have advanced the next generation of cryomodules, the building blocks of particle accelerators. A prototype built for the high-energy upgrade of SLAC’s LCLS-II X-ray laser has advanced the state of the art, packing more acceleration into a smaller distance, and could dramatically improve future accelerators.
This spring testing wrapped up at the PIP-II Injector Test Facility, or PIP2IT. The successful outcome paves the way for the construction of PIP-II, a new particle accelerator that will power record-breaking neutrino beams and drive a broad physics research program at Fermilab for the next 50 years.