The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's most powerful particle accelerator, will not restart its beams before July 2009, according to a post-mortem report on an accident that shut it down on 19 September.
Repairs to the machine, located at CERN, the European particle-physics lab near Geneva, Switzerland, will cost up to 35 million Swiss francs (US$29 million) and will require 53 magnets to be removed from the tunnel for inspection and repair.
The accident, which happened just nine days after the collider circulated its first beams, sent thousands of amps of electricity coursing through the machine's refrigeration system, creating a hole (main picture) that released several tonnes of helium coolant, leading to further damage (inset). Technicians will install new diagnostics and additional safety systems around the machine's 27-kilometre ring to prevent a similar blowout happening.
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Hadron collider faces long wait for repairs. Nature 456, 689 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/456689f
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/456689f
