The Royal Institution

Powering a Particle Accelerator (2016x31)

Data di messa in onda: Ago 11, 2016

How do you power a particle accelerator firing beams of protons 50 times a second into a heavy metal target? The ISIS neutron and muon source provides a near constant stream of particles for a huge range of research uses. Take a look at what it takes to keep a decades-old particle accelerator running. Subscribe for regular science videos: http://bit.ly/RiSubscRibe Building up enough power in a proton beam to pull neutrons out of atoms requires a huge amount of energy. To efficiently power the machines, the research facility at ISIS relies on a custom electrical system that uses a resonance circuit to establish the strong magnetic fields needed many times per second. This system, however, is built in-part around rigid technology that was inherited from a previous machine when ISIS was built. We take a look at the major engineering project to upgrade the power system of a particle accelerator, and see what it takes to keep control of a machine this complex. ISIS is owned and operated by the UK government, through the Science and Technology Facilities Council, as a major resource and facility for UK researchers. This video is supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The Ri is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ri_science and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/royalinstitution and Tumblr: http://ri-science.tumblr.com/ Our editorial policy: http://www.rigb.org/home/editorial-policy Subscribe for the latest science videos: http://bit.ly/RiNewsletter