• V. Baglin, B. Henrist, B. Jenninger, J.M. Jimenez, E. Mahner, G. Schneider, A. Sinturel, A. Vidal
  CERN, Geneva

During the sector 3-4 incident, the two apertures of the 3 km long cryogenic vacuum sectors of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) were brutally vented to helium. A systematic visual inspection of the beam pipe revealed the presence of soot, metallic debris and super insulation debris. After four month of cleaning, the beam vacuum system was recovered. This paper describes the tools and methodologies developed during this period, the achieved performances and discusses possible upgrades.