doi:10.1088/1748-0221/13/12/P12010engMonrabal, F.Gomez-Cadenas, J.J.Toledo, J.F.Laing, A.Alvarez, V.Benlloch-Rodriguez, J.M.Carcel, S.Carrion, J.Esteve, R.Felkai, R.Herrero, V.Martinez, A.Musti, M.Ouero, M.Rodriguez, J.Simon, A.Sofka, C.Torrent, J.Webb, R.White, J.T.Adams, C.Arazi, L.Azevedo, C.D.R.Bailey, K.Borges, F.I.G.M.Botas, A.Cebrian, S.Conde, C.A.N.Diaz, J.Diesburg, M.Escada, J.Fernandes, A.F.M.Fernandes, L.M.P.Ferrario, I.P.Ferreira, A.L.Freitas, E.D.C.Generowicz, J.Goldschmidt, A.Gonzalez-Daaz, D.Guenette, R.Gutierrez, R.M.Hafidi, K.Hauptman, J.Henriques, C.A.O.Hernandez, A.I.Morata, J.A.H.Johnston, S.Jones, B.J.P.Kekic, M.Labarga, L.Lebrun, P.Lopez-March, N.Losada, M.Mano, R.D.P.Martin-Albo, J.Martinez-Lema, G.McDonald, A.Monteiro, C.M.B.Mora, F.J.Vidal, J.M.Nebot-Guinot, M.Novella, P.Nygren, D.R.Palmeiro, B.Para, A.Perez, J.Renner, J.Repond, J.Riordan, S.Ripoll, L.Rogers, L.Romo-Luque, C.Santos, F.P.dos Santos, J.M.F.Sorel, M.Stiegler, T.Veloso, J.F.C.A.Yahlali, N.The NEXT White (NEW) detectorART-2018-109418Conceived to host 5 kg of xenon at a pressure of 15 bar in the fiducial volume, the NEXT-White apparatus is currently the largest high pressure xenon gas TPC using electroluminescent amplification in the world. It is also a 1:2 scale model of the NEXT-100 detector for Xe-136 beta beta 0 nu decay searches, scheduled to start operations in 2019. Both detectors measure the energy of the event using a plane of photomultipliers located behind a transparent cathode. They can also reconstruct the trajectories of charged tracks in the dense gas of the TPC with the help of a plane of silicon photomultipliers located behind the anode. A sophisticated gas system, common to both detectors, allows the high gas purity needed to guarantee a long electron lifetime. NEXT-White has been operating since October 2016 at the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc (LSC), in Spain. This paper describes the detector and associated infrastructures, as well as the main aspects of its initial operation.2018http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/7709910.1088/1748-0221/13/12/P12010http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/77099oai:zaguan.unizar.es:77099info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/SEV-2014-0398info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/MDM-2016-0692info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/FIS2014-53371-C04This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 740055-MELODICinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/740055/EU/Molecule for low diffusion TPCs for rare event searches/MELODICThis project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 690575-InvisiblesPlusinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/690575/EU/InvisiblesPlus/InvisiblesPlusThis project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 674896-ELUSIVESinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/674896/EU/The Elusives Enterprise: Asymmetries of the Invisible Universe/ELUSIVESinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/339787/EU/Towards the NEXT generation of bb0nu experimets/NEXTJournal of Instrumentation 13 (2018), P12010 [38 pp]All rights reservedhttp://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess