The Large Hadron Collider Takes A Break

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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The Large Hadron Collider Takes A Break


The LHC has been shut down for two years of upgrades, and will resume operation in 2015.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator, has finished its first run period of three years [http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2013/02/first-three-year-lhc-running-period-reaches-conclusion]. "We have every reason to be very satisfied with the LHC's first three years, said the Director-General of CERN. "The machine, the experiments, the computing facilities and all infrastructures behaved brilliantly, and we have a major scientific discovery in our pocket." In the next 12-24 months, major infrastructure upgrades and changes will occur across all of CERN's facilities, but the LHC will be affected the most. "We'll essentially be rebuilding the interconnections between LHC magnets, so when we resume running in 2015, we will be able to operate the machine at its design energy of 7 teraelectron volts (TeV) per beam," said Steve Myers, CERN's Director for Accelerators and Technology. In its first year, the LHC has produced much more data than expected - nearly 100 petabytes - the equivalent of 700 years of HD video. Analysis of only a fraction of this data has allowed scientists to make progress towards identifying the elusive Higgs-boson particle.

When they resume in 2015, the Large Hadron Collider will be able to run at a higher energy level than before, hopefully closer to its maximum potential energy of 14TeV. Long Shutdown 1 (LS1), has been part of the LHC plan from the beginning - no piece of equipment can survive the high levels of radiation and energy that the LHC puts out forever. "A whole series of renovation work will be carried out around the LHC during LS1," said Simon Baird, the deputy head of CERN Engineering. "The key driver is of course the consolidation of the 10,170 high-current splices between the superconducting magnets. The teams will start by opening up the 1695 interconnections between each of the cryostats of the main magnets. They will repair and consolidate around 500 interconnections simultaneously. The maintenance work will gradually cover the entire 27-kilometre circumference of the LHC."

CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the LHC is located underground on the border between France and Switzerland.

Source: CERN [http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/02/long-shutdown-1-exciting-times-ahead]


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kajinking

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Aug 12, 2009
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Fireprufe15 said:
That awkward moment when you're reading about real technology and it sounds like scifi...
Well after the shrinking Japanese building and the news story about fighter jets armed with lasers that feeling is going away fast.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Well, at least this time it wasn't taken out by a sandwich.

I doubt they'll ever live that down.
 

1337mokro

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Dec 24, 2008
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You know. Technically speaking the LHC could destroy the world. Making it a weapon of Total Annihilation. Better gird your loins Switzerland, America will soon be coming to get you.
 

antipunt

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Jan 3, 2009
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OK I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say:

I have no idea WTF I just read
 

Ukomba

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Oct 14, 2010
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Will that be when it destroys the world? I was promised it would destroy the world.

 

BehattedWanderer

Fell off the Alligator.
Jun 24, 2009
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And I thought a day's downtime was a long wait. But hey, they can study the gathered data in the meantime. Speaking of, Whoa, 100 Petabytes in three years? Anyone else a little underwhelmed, given the scope of this thing? For some reason, I was expecting like...an Exabyte.
 

Aaron Sylvester

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Jul 1, 2012
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antipunt said:
OK I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say:

I have no idea WTF I just read
Big tube spins stuff around

Tube is really tired now after so much use

Time to give the tube a rest for 2 years and put lots of new stuff in

After rest is over, big tube will spin stuff around even better

Scientists and physicists will have oozing hot sex

Then we will find Jesus
 

Squilookle

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Nov 6, 2008
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Fireprufe15 said:
That awesome time you live in when you're reading about real technology and it sounds like scifi...
Fixed that for you.

No need to thank me, it's all in a day's work.

Evil Smurf said:
I want a working flux compasitor
Or, say... a hoverboard?

 

unstabLized

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Mar 9, 2012
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Aaron Sylvester said:
antipunt said:
OK I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say:

I have no idea WTF I just read
Big tube spins stuff around

Tube is really tired now after so much use

Time to give the tube a rest for 2 years and put lots of new stuff in

After rest is over, big tube will spin stuff around even better

Scientists and physicists will have oozing hot sex

Then we will find Jesus
Made my night. That is all.
 

DasDestroyer

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Apr 3, 2010
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The truth is they've had their first success at time travel through electron-injected Kerr black holes and are now pretending to disable the LHC so that nobody suspects them as they slowly use their time travel monopoly to bring the world to its knees before them.
 

antipunt

New member
Jan 3, 2009
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Aaron Sylvester said:
antipunt said:
OK I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say:

I have no idea WTF I just read
Big tube spins stuff around

Tube is really tired now after so much use

Time to give the tube a rest for 2 years and put lots of new stuff in

After rest is over, big tube will spin stuff around even better

Scientists and physicists will have oozing hot sex

Then we will find Jesus
makes sense

.__.
 

Rellik San

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Feb 3, 2011
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1337mokro said:
You know. Technically speaking the LHC could destroy the world. Making it a weapon of Total Annihilation. Better gird your loins Switzerland, America will soon be coming to get you.
Assuming France, Germany, Italy and Austria let America through.

This is how World War 3 starts.
 

FantomOmega

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Jun 14, 2012
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DasDestroyer said:
The truth is they've had their first success at time travel through electron-injected Kerr black holes and are now pretending to disable the LHC so that nobody suspects them as they slowly use their time travel monopoly to bring the world to its knees before them.
Shhhh watch what you say THEY may be reading your post at this very moment, if you'll excuse me I have a banana.... to microwave...

El Psy Congroo
 

smokingplane

Regular Member
Dec 26, 2011
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Squilookle said:
Fireprufe15 said:
That awesome time you live in when you're reading about real technology and it sounds like scifi...
Fixed that for you.

No need to thank me, it's all in a day's work.
Nice fix, I total agree.

So now that they can't play with their high tech toy.... how long do I have to wait for a clone to cover mondaymornings at work?
 

Nimcha

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Dec 6, 2010
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I've actually been there when it was still being built, I gotta tell you those magnets are a sight to behold. It seems so counterintuitive that you need such awesomely large structures to find things so minute.

Also included was a talk about how the thing actually worked, shame I forgot most about that.