The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is equipped with instruments that exploit collisions between beam particles and gas targets, one of them being the Beam Gas Vertex monitor. By design, its operation generates secondary particle showers used to measure beam properties, that also result in radiation levels in the tunnel proportional to the beam intensity and gas pressure. In this work, the radiation showers are characterised using measured data from LHC Run 2 operation and Monte Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code, and predictions are made for the operation of these devices in the HL-LHC era.

Since the upgrade and renovation of the East Experimental Area at CERN during Long Shutdown 2 (LS2: 2019 - 2021), demand has increased for slowly extracted beam from the CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS). The East Area is a multi-user facility carrying out a diverse experimental physics programme. It requires a wide range of slowly extracted beams to be delivered by the PS. This contribution summarises the gained understanding, progress and improvements made since LS2 in the slow extraction of both proton and ion beams. Furthermore, it describes the production of low intensity, variable energy, heavy-ion beams for a collaboration between CERN and the European Space Agency, striving to establish a novel and flexible high-energy heavy-ion radiation test facility.

Heavy-ion single event effect (SEE) test facilities are critical in the development of microelectronic components that will be exposed to the ionizing particles present in the hostile environment of space. CHARM High-energy Ions for Micro Electronics Reliability Assurance (CHIMERA) and HEARTS have developed a high-energy ion beam capable of scanning a wide range of Linear Energy Transfer (LET) at low intensities to study ionization effects on space-bound technology using CERN's Proton Synchrotron (PS). This contribution describes the extraction and transport of low-intensity lead ions at multiple energies to the CHARM facility at the East Area of CERN. Furthermore, it discusses the implementation of a Radio Frequency Knockout (RFKO) technique that streamlines beam extraction and enhances particle flux control and reproducibility across different energies, thereby improving performance and reliability in SEE testing.

During the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operation small fractions of the beam are lost continuously, leading to mixed-field radiation. Whereas the 2022 radiation environment in the majority of the locations follows expectations established both through measurements and simulations, some discrepancies with respect to the Run 2 operation (2015-2018) were detected. This work presents an overview of the 2022 Total Ionizing Dose (TID) levels as measured by the Beam Loss Monitors (BLMs) distributed along the LHC, focusing on the similarities and most prominent discrepancies with respect to the Run 2 operation.

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is equipped with instruments that exploit collisions between beam particles and gas targets, one of them being the Beam Gas Vertex monitor. By design, its operation generates secondary particle showers used to measure beam properties, that also result in radiation levels in the tunnel proportional to the beam intensity and gas pressure. In this work, the radiation showers are characterised using measured data from LHC Run 2 operation and Monte Carlo simulations with the FLUKA code, and predictions are made for the operation of these devices in the HL-LHC era.

The CHIMERA (up to December 2022) and HEARTS (as of January 2023) projects aim to facilitate radiation effects testing of electronics components using heavy ion beams before deployment in harsh radiation environments such as space or high energy accelerators. The required (micro-) electronics reliability assurance testing conditions can be met by using 100 MeV/n - 5 GeV/n Pb ion beams extracted from CERN’s Proton Synchrotron (PS) which have a surface Linear Energy Transfer (LET) range of 10-40 MeV cm2/mg, >1 mm penetration depth in silicon and several cm FWHM beam size. This paper gathers the results from Monte Carlo simulations in FLUKA which were used to understand the transport of ions through the T08 transfer line in the PS East Area, focusing on key effects such as energy straggling, loss of transmission (e.g. through scattering and nuclear fragmentation) and beam size. These calculations served as input for machine development activities and allow us to characterize the radiation field at the testing location, in present and future experimental configurations. The simulation results are compared to instrumentation data obtained during an experimental campaign in November 2022. Potential future upgrades and developments are also discussed.