The Channel Wire

September 23, 2008

Just days after the successful first tests of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, scientists have revealed that a malfunction in the LHC will keep it offline until Spring of 2009.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Geneva-based European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN, said the problem stems from a helium leak in one of the sectors of the LHC, a 17 mile-long ring-shaped tunnel situated underground on the France-Switzerland border. Scientists believe the leak was triggered by an electrical malfunction between two of the powerful magnets that help to power the LHC.

Sometime in October, researchers had hoped to begin using the LHC for the purpose for which it was designed: to crash particles together with such massive force that it'll hopefully provide them with a glimpse into the origins of matter and shed light on some of the unanswered questions of physics.

In order to fix the helium leak, researchers will have to bring the LHC from its operating temperature of 1.9 Kelvin, or minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit, up to room temperature, a process that will take between 3 and 4 weeks. That will run into the LHC's planned Winter maintenance window, which means scientists won't be cranking it up again until March or April of 2009.

"Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," said CERN Director General Robert Aymar, in a statement.