Fears about CERN's Large Hadron Collider are 'œpure fiction'

William Atkins
Friday, 05 September 2008 22:14

Science - Energy

Over the past fourteen years, independent scientists and CERN’s own scientists conducted numerous safety investigations and audits concerning the operation of the LHC with regards to all aspects of safety and the environment.

The CERN Council, composed of governmental representatives from twenty European Member States of CERN, has coordinated these safety efforts.

CERN’s Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Observer States include India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The CERN Scientific Policy Committee (SPC), composed of twenty independent scientists, advises the CERN Council on the scientific information contained within the reports.

Five SPC members examined the 2008 report and “endorsed the authors’ approach of basing their arguments on irrefutable observational evidence to conclude that new particles produced at the LHC will pose no danger. The full SPC agreed unanimously with their findings.”