Cryogenic hydrogen Moderator infrastructure at ESS

Abstract

The European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden, is designed to become the most powerful spallation neutron source in the world. As one subsystem of the Target Station, which was developed and built at Central Institute of Engineering, Electronics and Analytics – Engineering and Technology (ZEA-1) of Forschungszentrum Juelich, the cold Moderator slows down high-energy neutrons from the spallation process. To gain maximum neutron flux intensities along with high system availability for condensed and soft matter research, an optimized liquid hydrogen Moderator circuit has been developed. Hydrogen with a pressure around 1 MPa, a temperature around 20 K, and a para-hydrogen fraction of at least 0.995 will be utilized to interact with neutrons in a unique cold Moderator vessel arrangement. Hydrogen conversion from ortho- to para-hydrogen will be controlled using a catalyst. Two turbo pumps are arranged in series and circulate the cryogen. A helium refrigerator, the Target Moderator Cryoplant (TMCP), continuously recools the hydrogen mass flow. Pressure stabilization is achieved by a pressure control buffer. The individual ESS Cryogenic Moderator System (CMS) components, the first and second generation of hydrogen Moderators (BF1 and BF2) and a first draft of a deuterium Moderator upgrade are presented.