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Circular particle accelerators like the LHC, fusion reactors and quantum computers all obtain a large part of their complexity and expense from the cryogenic re
by whatshisface 3y ago
Circular particle accelerators like the LHC, fusion reactors and quantum computers all obtain a large part of their complexity and expense from the cryogenic refrigerators that are necessary for them to work. It goes unnoticed because people think of it as a "solved problem," but keeping tons of material at liquid nitrogen temperatures takes a lot of energy and huge apparatuses.
- kadoban 3y agoThat's not to mention delays in work too. Every time there's a "quenching" event at the LHC, that's days/weeks/months fixing everything and getting it back down to temp. I seem to recall they had to shut down for a year or so for upgrades at one point too. Having to work around the cooling had to have affected that timeline.
- fnands 3y ago> material at liquid nitrogen temperatures Even worse sometimes. For the LHC it's liquid helium temperatures!
- klyrs 3y agoAs I understand it (not an expert) superconducting qubits are strongly impacted by temperature. So they're typically operated at sub-Kelvin temperatures, using liquid helium. Worse yet, they need unobtanium: helium 3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_refrigerator