Why a 50-year-old particle accelerator keeps failing every 28 days

8 pointsposted 15 hours ago
by LosAlamosNerd

3 Comments

LosAlamosNerd

15 hours ago

LANL’s particle accelerator shuts down about every 28 days because a tiny tungsten filament burns out under heat, cesium, and ion bombardment. Researchers are testing graphene coatings—atomic-scale “armor”—to keep it running longer.

I would love to hear if you think this kind of nano-protection could be generalized to other extreme environments (fusion, space, etc).

AnimalMuppet

15 hours ago

Disappointing - I was expecting it to be that some system time was overflowing on a 50-year-old computer.

madcaptenor

14 hours ago

I thought it was going to be the moon.