Rosatom becomes a superconductor supplier to CERN

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has successfully completed acceptance tests for Russian niobium-tin superconductors manufactured under the Future Circular Collider (FCC) project, which is to replace CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

The construction of the superconducting fibers and the technology of their production were developed at the High-Tech Research Institute for Inorganic Materials “Academician A. Bochvar” in Moscow, and the pilot batch of wires with a total length of 50 km is the work of the Chepetsk Mechanical Plant in Glazov.

The activities are under an agreement between CERN and the fuel company of Rosatom – TVEL.

As a result of the successful tests of the production, TVEL became a qualified supplier of superconductors for CERN’s programs for the development of particle accelerators.

The magnetic system is one of the key elements of the Future Circular Collider. Its colossal size – the length of the circle is about 100 kilometers, requires the supply of a significant amount of superconducting filaments, which can be produced only with the joint efforts of countries with such technology – Russia, USA, South Korea, Japan and China.

The future circular collider in Switzerland is a key international research project that should make it easier for scientists to take fundamental research in the field of particle physics to a new level. The new particle accelerator will help to understand the nature of dark matter, the emergence of asymmetry antimatter – matter in the universe and to solve other issues beyond the so-called standard model of modern physics.

Unlike the superconductors created at Rosatom for the international thermonuclear reactor ITER, which is being built in France, the threads for the Future Circular Collider project were obtained by a method that allows the construction of a conductor with a significantly higher critical current density – necessary condition for the creation of modern magnetic systems of accelerators and installations in the field of high energy physics.

Applied superconductivity is one of the strategic directions in the development of non-nuclear technologies in the fuel company of Rosatom – TVEL. Low-temperature superconducting materials are indispensable for the creation of modern medical equipment (magnetic resonance imaging), as well as in analytical equipment with high and ultra-high resolution, such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers.

“We are proud that the superconductors produced by us will help implement the largest Russian and international research projects in the field of high energy physics and fusion – the Future Circular Collider, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the NICA accelerator complex and the study of ions and antiprotons FAIR. We are also developing niobium-titanium conductors for the Future Collider and especially pure resonator niobium, which will be needed for the manufacture of its acceleration systems, “said the president of TVEL Natalia Nikipelova.