Origin of the Damage to the Internal High Energy Beam Dump in the CERN SPS

The high energy beam dump in the SPS has to deal with beams from 105 to 450 GeV/c and intensities of up to 4× 10 13 protons. An inspection during the last shutdown revealed significant damage to the Al section of the dump block. This paper summarizes the results of the analysis revealing the most likely cause of the damage to the beam dump. The implications for future SPS operation will also be briefly discussed, together with the short-term solution put in place.