Geneva (Switzerland) – An electrical failure that forced the shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in September and will keep the system offline over the winter, will cost at least $21 million to repair, AP reports.

A small problem that occurred after just nine days of LHC operation is going to cost CERN a big chunk of money. The repair of a faulty electrical connection between two magnets that resulted in helium leaks will take much longer than expected and will cost at least $21 million, the organization said today. The repairs could be completed by May or June. The LHC could be restarted by June 2009 at the earliest.

"If we can do it sooner, all well and good. But I think we can do it realistically (in) early summer," spokesman James Gillies told AP. Initially, CERN said that the repairs would take a few days and that the collider could be up and running again after two months.

The repairs are apparently starting these days as the LHC have been armed up from their superconducting temperature of -450 degrees Fahrenheit (-268.5 degrees Celsius or 4.5 Kelvin).

Once it is back online, scientists plan on exploiting the LHC full particle collision potential: The LHC can create beams with up to 7 TeV, translating into a maximum collision energy of 14 TeV when two beams cross. LHC scientists said that their particle beams will travel in bunches of 3000, carrying a total of about 100 billion particles.

At 99.9% of the speed of light, the beam will travel the 27 km (17 mile) ring structure consisting of a pipe that runs through 1746 magnets) 11,745 times per second. The energy level of the beam at 7 TeV is about comparable to an average car that is travelling at 1000 mph. A beam may be active for up to 10 hours, which means that its total distance travelled will be about 6.2 billion miles, which is about twice the distance between Earth and Neptune.

White Elephant

Nov 17, 2008 14:29     

Before it broke....what exactly did this white elephant provide again? Honest question
Quasar report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Damn those mini black holes! Sucking up all our cas...

Nov 17, 2008 18:38     

Damn those mini black holes! Sucking up all our cash! Giggidy giggidy goo! OH! :P
fanboy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

@Quasar

Nov 17, 2008 23:48     

It was going to try to see the particle of particles to know more about what happened at the big bang. It didn't do much in its 9 days though, since it'd take months to get that information.
jj report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

another piece of European crap.

Nov 18, 2008 16:22     

just like their Mars lander, another piece of European junk that breaks after you use it once.
yo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0