Italy’s Tratos has successfully delivered 10 advanced superconducting cables to CERN in the Geneva region, supporting upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.
The delivery supports the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) project, which aims to significantly increase collider luminosity and open new pathways for discoveries in fundamental physics. Tratos completed the supply through ICAS, a leading superconductivity consortium formed as a spin-off of ENEA. The consortium includes Tratos Cavi and Criotec Impianti and combines industrial manufacturing expertise with advanced scientific research.
The project leveraged ENEA’s Superconductivity Laboratory alongside Tratos’ technical and industrial capabilities to design and manufacture highly innovative cable systems. Engineers have already tested two of the 10 cables under full operating conditions, confirming their readiness for installation at CERN.
Each cable measures approximately 100 meters in length and uses magnesium diboride (MgB₂) superconducting technology developed specifically for the HL-LHC upgrade. CERN and its industrial partners continue to deploy large-scale MgB₂ superconducting links to boost luminosity, improve energy efficiency, and enhance overall accelerator performance.
The MgB₂ cables operate inside a flexible cryostat and rely on forced-flow gaseous helium cooling. This design allows the cables to transport extremely high electrical currents—together approaching 100,000 amperes—between power supplies and the LHC’s superconducting magnets. According to Alessandro Dodaro, director of ENEA’s Nuclear Department, the project demonstrates how focused research, engineering, and industrial collaboration can deliver reliable high-power superconducting systems that meet the demanding quality standards of global scientific infrastructure.
