A new facility to test superconducting accelerator magnets

Future high energy accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider require accelerator magnets with the highest possible fields. For NbTi conductor magnets, this means operating at superfluid helium temperatures in the range of 1.8-1.9 K. As part of Fermilab's superconducting magnet R&D program, we have built a facility to test magnets in a vertical dewar of superfluid liquid helium. The dewar is designed for magnets up to 4 m length and 620 mm diameter, with a temperature range of 1.8 K to 4.4 K and 1 atmosphere helium. The power system consists of 10 kA and 8.8 kA power supplies operating in parallel, with a bus work and an extraction circuit that can accommodate up a 18 kA excitation current. A description of the facility as well as operational experience from the first magnet tests are presented.