Département des Systèmes Basses Températures

The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (including the X-IFU cryostat and the cooling chain), due to an unanticipated cost overrun of Athena. In this paper, after illustrating the breakthrough capabilities of the X-IFU, we describe the instrument as presented at its SRR, browsing through all the subsystems and associated requirements. We then show the instrument budgets, with a particular emphasis on the anticipated budgets of some of its key performance parameters. Finally we briefly discuss on the ongoing key technology demonstration activities, the calibration and the activities foreseen in the X-IFU Instrument Science Center, and touch on communication and outreach activities, the consortium organisation, and finally on the life cycle assessment of X-IFU aiming at minimising the environmental footprint, associated with the development of the instrument. Thanks to the studies conducted so far on X-IFU, it is expected that along the design-to-cost exercise requested by ESA, the X-IFU will maintain flagship capabilities in spatially resolved high resolution X-ray spectroscopy, enabling most of the original X-IFU related scientific objectives of the Athena mission to be retained. (abridged).

JT-60SA is the satellite tokamak for ITER in the Broader Approach agreement. The JT-60SA uses 18 toroidal field coils, a central solenoid with 4 modules, and 6 equilibrium field coils, they are all superconducting coils with forced flow cooled conductors. All detailed designs of these superconducting coils have been completed. The manufacturing of conductors and coils are progressing in Japan and EU. This paper shows the latest manufacturing activities and final design adjusting of its magnet system and their utilities.

Dew water, mostly ignored until now, can provide clean freshwater resources, just by extracting the atmospheric vapor available in surrounding air. Inspired by silicon-based solar panels, the vapor can be harvested by a concept of water condensing panels. Efficient water harvesting requires not only a considerable yield but also a timely water removal from the surface since the very beginning of condensation to avoid the huge evaporation losses. This translates into strict surface properties, which are difficult to simultaneously realize. Herein, we study various functionalized silicon surfaces, including the so-called Black Silicon, which supports two droplet motion modes-out-of-plane jumping and in-plane sweeping, due to its unique surface morphology, synergistically leading to a pioneering combination of above two required characteristics. According to silicon material's scalability, the proposed silicon-based water panels would benefit from existing infrastructures toward dual functions of energy harvesting in daytime and water harvesting in nighttime.

We present a search for axionlike polarization oscillations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) with observations from the Keck Array. A local axion field induces an all-sky, temporally sinusoidal rotation of CMB polarization. A CMB polarimeter can thus function as a direct-detection experiment for axionlike dark matter. We develop techniques to extract an oscillation signal. Many elements of the method are generic to CMB polarimetry experiments and can be adapted for other datasets. As a first demonstration, we process data from the 2012 observing season to set upper limits on the axion-photon coupling constant in the mass range ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}21}--{10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$, which corresponds to oscillation periods on the order of hours to months. We find no statistically significant deviations from the background model. For periods larger than 24 hr (mass $m<4.8\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}20}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$), the median 95% confidence upper limit is equivalent to a rotation amplitude of 0.68\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}, which constrains the axion-photon coupling constant to ${g}_{\ensuremath{\phi}\ensuremath{\gamma}}<\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}(1.1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}11}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}1})m/({10}^{\ensuremath{-}21}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV})$, if axionlike particles constitute all of the dark matter. The constraints can be improved substantially with data already collected by the BICEP series of experiments. Current and future CMB polarimetry experiments are expected to achieve sufficient sensitivity to rule out unexplored regions of the axion parameter space.

Strategies for smoothing pulsed heat loads are of great interest for future operation of large refrigeration systems for tokamaks, such as JT-60SA or ITER as their superconducting magnets are cooled by independent supercritical helium loops. Numerical and experimental process studies have been conducted at CEA Grenoble to validate and optimize the control of such large scale refrigeration circuits. At the cryo-distribution level, in the auxiliary cold box, pulsed heat load effects have been analysed on a scaled down loop of supercritical helium driven by a cold circulator. Variation of pressure and mass flow can be significant depending on the pulsed load scenario and on the volume distribution between the heat sources and extractions along the loops. Extensive experimental tests have been performed on the HELIOS (HElium Loop for hIghlOads Smoothing) test facility during the past three years and the present article aims at summarizing the pulsed load strategies and the understanding of the thermodynamics along the supercritical loop. Dynamic modelling on EcosimPro™ and the CRYOLIB™ library are relevant tools to validate and to compare possible future process controls. The observations and outcomes of this study can be used for preparing the operation of future cryogenic installations, which main new feature will be the pulsed heat load control resulting from the cycling operation of the tokamak.

The molecular and cellular mechanisms associated with tissue degradation or regeneration in an infectious context are poorly defined. Herein, we explored the role of macrophages in orchestrating either tissue regeneration or degradation in zebrafish embryos pre-infected with the fish pathogen Mycobacterium marinum . Zebrafish were inoculated with different infectious doses of M. marinum prior to fin resection. While mild infection accelerated fin regeneration, moderate or severe infection delayed this process by reducing blastemal cell proliferation and impeding tissue morphogenesis. This was correlated with impaired macrophage recruitment at the wound of the larvae receiving high infectious doses. Macrophage activation characterized, in part, by a high expression level of tnfa was exacerbated in severely infected fish during the early phase of the regeneration process, leading to macrophage necrosis and their complete absence in the later phase. Our results demonstrate how a mycobacterial infection influences the macrophage response and tissue regenerative processes.

The superconducting magnets of the tokamak JT-60SA are cooled by means of forced flows of supercritical helium at 4.4 K and 0.5 MPa. The closed loops transfer heat from the magnets to the refrigerator through heat exchangers immersed into a saturated liquid helium bath. An experimental loop was designed to represent a 1/20 scaled down mock-up of JT-60SA central solenoid cooling circuits. This design for keeping the same transit times in the helium circuits, aims at observing the thermally induced transients in the closed loop. Indeed, heated section simulates the variable loads coming from the magnet circuits. A series of experiments was performed with pulsed loads in an isochoric configuration of the loop. The cold circulator has been characterized under pulsed operation and its performances are addressed. Mass flow regulations at the interface of the refrigerator were tested to smooth the pulsed loads with the saturated liquid bath acting as a thermal buffer. Knowledge of the pulsed loads effects on the cryogenic components is important in view of a safe operation of the cryogenic system.

Abstract Velocity measurements in turbulent superfluid helium between co-rotating propellers are reported. The parameters are chosen such that the flow is fully turbulent, and its dissipative scales are partly resolved by the velocity sensors. This allows for the first experimental comparison of spectra in quantum versus classical turbulence where dissipative scales are resolved. In some specific conditions, differences are observed, with an excess of energy at small scales in the quantum case compared to the classical one. This difference is consistent with the prediction of a pileup of superfluid kinetic energy at the bottom of the inertial cascade of turbulence due to a specific dissipation mechanism.

In the framework of the JT-60SA project, a para- metric study was performed on the He mass flow rate cooling the Toroidal Field (TF) system. This mass flow is a crucial design parameter, since a high value is favorable regarding the temperature margin criterion, but requires more circulation power thus generating one of the main cryogenic loads. The study was led with the Tacos/Texto tool, based on Ansys (thermal) and Gandalf (thermohydraulics) codes. The impact of the TF conductor mass flow was analyzed, regarding on the one hand the temperature margin criterion, and on the other hand cryogenic aspects such as the TF magnet heat loads smoothing and the impact on the overall cryogenic system loads. Concerning the temperature margin criterion, the analysis showed that the foreseen nominal value of 4 g/s per conductor is appropriate for the studied reference scenario, while proposing a lower mass flow value in case of less demanding operation conditions, notably without or with low neutron heating. In such conditions, a TF mass flow limitation could bring an appreciable reduction of cryogenic loads, but shouldn't involve significant benefit regarding heat load smoothing.

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Superconducting magnets for fusion are subjected to large variations of heat loads due to cycling operation of tokamaks. The cryogenic system shall operate smoothly to extract the pulsed heat loads by circulating supercritical helium into the coils and structures. However the value of the total heat loads and its temporal variation are not known before the plasma scenario starts. A real-time heat load estimator is of interest for the process control of the cryogenic system in order to anticipate the arrival of pulsed heat loads to the refrigerator and finally to optimize the operation of the cryogenic system. The large variation of the thermal loads affects the physical parameters of the supercritical helium loop (pressure, temperature, mass flow) so those signals can be used for calculating instantaneously the loads deposited into the loop. The methodology and algorithm are addressed in the article for estimating the heat load deposition before it reaches the refrigerator. The CEA patented process control has been implemented in a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and has been successfully validated on the HELIOS test facility at CEA Grenoble. This heat load estimator is complementary to pulsed load smoothing strategies providing an estimation of the optimized refrigeration power. It can also effectively improve the process control during the transient between different operating modes by adjusting the refrigeration power to the need. This way, the heat load estimator participates to the safe operation of the cryogenic system.

In the framework of the ITER Broader Approach, CEA is carrying out the procurement of the Cryogenic System to the JA-EU Satellite Tokamak JT-60SA, which should be operated in Japan at JAEA, Naka in 2014. According to the Conceptual Design Report, JT-60SA is to operate for periods of at least 6 months per year, with major shutdown periods in between for maintenance and further installation upgrades. For this operation scenario, the cryoplant and the cryodistribution have to cope with different heat loads which depend on the different JT-60SA operating states. The cryoplant consists of one 4.5 K refrigerator and one 80 K helium loop, each pre-cooled by LN2. These cryogenic subsystems have to operate simultaneously in order to remove the heat loads from the superconducting magnets, 80 K shields and the divertor cryopumps.The first part of this study is based on the Process Flow Diagram (PFD) and presents the current design status of the JT-60SA cryogenic system. The second part is dedicated to the analysis of the cryoplant normal operation modes including the regeneration mode of the divertor cryopumps.Thanks to this analysis, the architecture of the present PFD is proposed in order to match the technical specifications of the cryoplant with the JT-60SA operation requirements.

The design of the cryogenic circuit for the toroidal field magnets has a relevant role in the overall costs of the DTT cryogenic plant (or cryoplant), hence numerical tools can be useful to investigate and to compare different configurations for the TF cooling circuit in support of the selection of the most suitable one. The system-level cryogenic circuit module of the validated thermal-hydraulic 4C code is adopted in this work to model the DTT TF cooling system. At first, the model of the reference circuit layout is implemented and simulated during the plasma pulsed operation of the DTT machine, highlighting the necessity to reduce the heat load transferred to the refrigerator due to the large power consumption of the cold compressor. In view of the above, different TF circuit layouts and optimization strategies are presented, including mitigation strategies for the smoothing of the peak heat load to the refrigerator, leading to a reduction of the cold compressor power up to the 66% with respect to that computed for the reference TF cryogenic circuit layout.

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We report on the design and performance of the BICEP3 instrument and its first three-year data set collected from 2016 to 2018. BICEP3 is a 52cm aperture, refracting telescope designed to observe the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) on degree angular scales at 95GHz. It started science observation at the South Pole in 2016 with 2400 antenna-coupled transition-edge sensor (TES) bolometers. The receiver first demonstrated new technologies such as large-diameter alumina optics, Zotefoam infrared filters, and flux-activated SQUIDs, allowing $\sim 10\times$ higher optical throughput compared to the Keck design. BICEP3 achieved instrument noise-equivalent temperatures of 9.2, 6.8 and 7.1$\mu\text{K}_{\text{CMB}}\sqrt{\text{s}}$ and reached Stokes $Q$ and $U$ map depths of 5.9, 4.4 and 4.4$\mu$K-arcmin in 2016, 2017 and 2018, respectively. The combined three-year data set achieved a polarization map depth of 2.8$\mu$K-arcmin over an effective area of 585 square degrees, which is the deepest CMB polarization map made to date at 95GHz.

The CEA is involved in large helium refrigeration applied to the future experimental fusion reactors (e.g. ITER or JT‐60SA). Pulsed operation of such machines results in heat load variations which the refrigerators have to cope with. One solution to smooth pulsed loads is to use a large thermal buffer, and in the case of JT‐60SA cryogenic system, a saturated thermal bath is one of the investigated solutions. A 1D thermo hydraulic model describing the cooling loop associated with TF (Toroidal Field) coils and TF casing has been developed using Vincenta code to calculate the heat load arriving to the buffer (saturated bath). However, the liquid helium buffer itself and its coupling with the primary loop was not modelized. This paper shows results obtained using the existing functionalities in Vincenta code to model a saturated bath. For very large bath volumes, bath temperature remains almost steady and the power removed is equal to those previously calculated. On the other side, for smaller buffer volumes (e.g. JT‐60SA scheme), it has been found that the increase of temperature fluctuations does not vary proportionally with the decrease of the buffer volume.

Abstract MYRRHA (Multi-purpose hYbrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications) will be composed of a 600 MeV LINear ACcelerator (LINAC) with a large number of cryomodules and a 100 MW thermal power subcritical nuclear reactor cooled by lead-bismuth. The MINERVA MYRRHA Isotopes productioN coupling the linEar acceleRator to the Versatile proton target fAcility) project is the first phase of the MYRRHA project composed of a 100 MeV, 4 mA continuous-wave proton LINAC. The MINERVA LINAC takes advantage of 60 superconducting radiofrequency (RF) cavities cooled at 2 K by saturated superfluid helium (He II). The MINERVA cryoplant will supply the required cryogenic cooling power of the LINAC through cryogenic lines and cryogenic valve boxes. This paper describes the LINAC cryogenic system supply architecture, the different operating modes, the heat loads, the cryoplant main requirements and the strategy to comply with high reliability requirements. The MINERVA cryoplant shall provide helium flows at 40 K for the thermal shielding, at 5 K for the cooling of the RF couplers and at 2 K for the 60 superconducting cavities installed in 30 cryomodules. The total equivalent refrigeration power of the MINERVA cryoplant is about 3.5 kW at 4.5 K. The cryoplant is composed of a warm compression station including sub-atmospheric volumetric compressors, helium gas storages and a refrigeration cold box with cold centrifugal compressors.

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