Iseult/INUMAC Whole Body 11.7 T MRI Magnet Status

A Whole Body 11.7 T MRI Magnet is presently being developed at the CEA Saclay for the Iseult/Inumac project, a French-German initiative focused on very-high-magnetic-field molecular imaging to improve sensitivity, spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution for preclinical and/or clinical MR systems. The magnet will be installed at the Neurospin center, Saclay, in 2012. This actively shielded magnet system, with a stored energy of 338 MJ and an inductance of 308 H, has external dimensions of 5 m in diameter and 5.2 m in length. The magnet will operate at a homogeneous field level of 11.75 T within a 90 cm warm bore and at a current of 1483 A. The technological choice for the cryostable winding is a double pancake structure, using NbTi conductors cooled with a pressurized bath of Helium II at 1.8 K. In April 2009, the project passed an important milestone with the publication of the Technical Design Report, which defines the engineering parameters, design of the magnet, and establishes its engineering feasibility. In the paper, the status of the 11.7 T magnet is reviewed and the future developments are presented.