Big Bang machine getting ready for a restart after more than a year of repairs
By APTuesday, November 17, 2009
Big Bang machine nears restart after repairs
GENEVA — The European Organization for Nuclear Research says it expects to restart the world’s largest atom smasher by this weekend after more than a year of repairs.
Spokesman James Gillies says scientists have refrained from setting an exact date for sending beams of protons around the 27-kilometer (17-mile) circular tunnel housing the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC.
He says the organization known as CERN is taking its time with the sophisticated equipment, which is much more powerful than any such machine in the world.
The machine was launched with great fanfare last year before suffering a spectacular failure from a bad electrical connection, damaging 53 of the smasher’s 9,300 superconducting magnets.
