Experiments were conducted on a liquid helium natural circulation loop with a 4 m long horizontal heated section. Wall temperatures on the heated section, mass flow rate and pressure drop were measured in steady and transient regimes. The stability of the loop has been studied and the power stability limits have been found. Also, different heating configurations were explored and their drawbacks and benefits were observed. The result is that the loop is stable only above a non-zero low power and below a certain upper power limit. The distance from the heating to the vertical riser affects the stability range. It has been found that instabilities at low power or transients following a low power step pulse can produce considerable temperature oscillations, potentially dangerous from the magnet protection point of view.
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