14 DAY TRIAL // The Large Hadron Collider is currently the largest particle accelerator in the world, built under the Swiss-Franc border for the staggering price of 6 billion Swiss francs ($5.2 billion). It features a 27 kilometer (17 miles)-long circular tunnel, which is used to accelerate specific beams of particles at speeds close to that of light. The beams are then collided, and a high-tech sensor records the processes that occur, with the purpose of getting a better understanding of particle physics, as well as discovering the Higgs boson, which converts matter into energy.
The LHC was turned on on September 10th, 2008, but was shut down just 9 days later, following helium leakages from some portions of its cooling system. The estimated costs for the repair have already reached a grand total of 30 million Swiss francs ($26 million), but the newly-appointed chief of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the operator of the particle accelerator, says that the expenses could go as high as 40 million Swiss francs.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN director-general, has told the Swiss newspaper Sonntag that he plans to exercise extreme caution in turning the machine on again, and that he will require foreign experts to double- and triple-check the entire system before the particle accelerator starts functioning anew. "I want to be sure that everything works. So I'll also let an external group make additional checks on the accelerator," he explains.
"But when you have been working on something for so long, with time you can become blinded by the system and don't find all the faults." Results "only come when everything is working. I'm a bit more careful in that respect than my predecessor," Heuer adds in the same article.
Work on the LHC began more than a decade ago and was finished in 2008, when the first proton beams were circulated in the world's most energetic particle accelerator. However, tests needed to be halted due to the serious hardware faults, and Heuer considers that the first test fire will most likely be in June. The officials are currently trying to make sure that all aspects of the repairs are perfect, before turning the machine on again.