Iseult/INUMAC 11.7-T MRI Assembly Status

A new innovative whole-body 11.7-T MRI magnet is currently being manufactured at Alstom Belfort as part the Iseult/Inumac project, a French-German initiative focused on very high magnetic field molecular imaging. It will be installed at the end of year 2016 in a neuroscience research center with other very high field MRI equipment, operating in France at CEA Saclay since November 2006. The main coil constructed from a stack of 170 double pancakes of 2-m diameter, with a finished height of 4 m and 50 t in weight, has been completed within required tolerances. The two shielding coils, vacuum impregnated solenoids of 4 m in diameter and 10 t in weight, have been also completed within tolerances. A crack has been discovered inside the 2-m diameter mandrel of the cryogenic correction coils. A new mandrel has been manufactured, with delivery in July 2015. The main coil and the shielding coils have been integrated inside the helium vessel, and the assembly of thermal shield and vacuum vessel is due to start, with completion expected by the middle of 2016. The magnet will be serviced by a separate cryogenic and electrical facility; the installation of this external equipment will be completed by the end of 2015 when the first phase of the commissioning will start. Full tests and commissioning of the magnet at 1.8 K are expected at NeuroSpin at the beginning of 2017.