Technology news and Jobs 
Science Leaky Large Hadron Collider won't be colliding until 2009
Science Leaky Large Hadron Collider won't be colliding until 2009 | Leaky Large Hadron Collider won't be colliding until 2009 |
|
| by William Atkins | |
| Wednesday, 24 September 2008 | |
|
A large liquid helium leak in Sector 34 of the 17-mile (27-kilometer) long and 12.5-foot (3.8-meter) wide LHC tunnel has forced further certifications to the world’s largest particle accelerator to be postponed until sometime in the spring of 2009. The cause of the problem is probably a faulty electrical connection between two magnets of the LHC. Further investigations will be conducted over the next few months to find the exact mechanical cause of the problem and to fix it. The repairs to the LHC will involve returning Sector 34 to room temperature so the magnets can be opened. The magnets are normally kept at a super-cool temperature of 1.9 Kelvin above absolute zero (or, -456.3 degrees Fahrenheit, -271.3 degrees Celsius). CERN director general Rober Aymar stated, “Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow.” [CERN: “LHC re-start scheduled for 2009”] Aymar added, "Nevertheless, the success of the LHC’s first operation with beam is testimony to years of painstaking preparation and the skill of the teams involved in building and running CERN’s accelerator complex. I have no doubt that we will overcome this setback with the same degree of rigour and application.” The website of the Large Hadron Collider, operated by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) and lying betwen 50 and 175 meters beneath the French/Swiss border between the Alps and the Jura Mountains, is found at: http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/.
Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now
|
Tags
| < Next story in category | Previous story in the category > |
|---|
