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Why a 50-year-old particle accelerator keeps failing every 28 days (lanl.gov)
8 points by LosAlamosNerd 7 months ago | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments


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).


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


I thought it was going to be the moon.




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