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by jahnu 762 days ago
There was some buzz years ago about using liquid nitrogen instead but I don’t know if it made it into widespread production

https://www.wired.com/story/mri-magnet-cooling/

1 comments

Sounds like that's more about using a cryocooler to minimize the helium used-- but presumably that requires keeping the coils in a particularly hard vacuum to adequately insulate them.

There is some research towards operating at liquid hydrogen temperatures -- but hydrogen has its own logistical challenges.