HiRadMat (High-Radiation to Materials) is a users facility at CERN, designed to provide high-intensity short-pulse 440 GeV proton or 173.5 GeV/n 208Pb beams to a dedicated target area. HiRadMat is not a facility where large doses can be accumulated during an experiment. The unique capability of HiRadMat is to test the dynamic effects of short beam pulses on material samples, full scale accelerator components like beam loss monitors, collimators or beam dumps, particle detectors and even superconducting magnet strands in conditions that are comparable to the LHC. The HiRadMat facility was initialized from within the LHC Collimation Project and went into operation with its first beam time run in 2012. As of today, 36 dedicated experiments with an integrated number of extracted protons of ~3·1016 have been performed at HiRadMat.
The HiRadMat Facility consists of three underground sections adjacent to the SPS to LHC transfer lines:
- TNC: Target and cool-down area
- TJ7: Shielded bunker with direct line of sight towards the target area
- TT61: Shielded auxiliary tunnel adjacent to the target area
The TNC target area contains a fixed beam diagnostics set-up consisting of a Beam Television (BTV) and Beam Pickup position monitor (BPKG) for on-line analysis of the lateral beam size and its position. Experiments are mounted on the two test stands with embedded electrical and cooling water connections. Behind the experiments, the beam dump absorbs the primary beam & the secondary particle shower while the cool-down area allows experiments to cool
In front of TNC, TJ7 houses a shielded bunker located roughly 40 meters away from the target area that can be used for sensitive equipment that needs a direct line of sight to the experiment (non-radiation-hard cameras, laser Doppler vibrometers and connected equipment like data acquisition systems or computers).
TT61 the shielded auxiliary tunnel that contains the permanent BTV optical measurement installation. Furthermore, an electrical patch field enables the connection of sensitive equipment with short signal paths to the experimental test stands. Two direct feedthroughs between TT61 and TNC allow the connection of auxiliary equipment like gas tubes, UHV hoses or optical fibers. TJ7 and TT61 have CERN network-enabled ethernet ports to facilitate remote control.