THE RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLIDER (RHIC) CRYOGENIC SYSTEM AT BNL: REVIEW OF THE MODIFICATIONS AND UPGRADES SINCE 2002 AND PLANNED IMPROVEMENTS

Brookhaven National Laboratory continues its multi-year program to improve the operational efficiency, reliability, and stability of the cryogenic system which also resulted in improved beam availability of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). This paper summarizes the work and changes made after each phase over the past four years to the present, as well as proposed future improvements. Power usage dropped from an initial 9.4 MW to the present 5.1 MW and is expected to drop below 5 MW after the completion of the remaining proposed improvements. The work proceeded in phases by balancing the Collider's schedule of operation, time required for the modifications and budget constraints. The main changes include process control, compressor oil removal and management, elimination of the use of cold compressors and two liquid helium storage tanks, insulation of the third liquid helium storage tank, compressor bypass flow reduction and the addition of a load turbine (Joule-Thompson expander) with associated heat exchangers at the cold end of the plant. Also, liquid helium pumps used for forced circulation of the sub-cooled helium through the magnet loops were eliminated by an accelerator supply flow reconfiguration. Planned future upgrades include the resizing of expanders 5 and 6 to increase their efficiencies.