Large Hadron Collider restart pushed back again
Summary
Topics
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has been offline since an incident on September 19 last year, when an equipment failure caused extensive damage. James Gillies, Cern's head of communications, said on Monday that an internal schedule set in February to restart the experiment has been pushed back by two or three weeks, but that the restart would still commence in the autumn.
"The situation is a retreat from February," Gillies told ZDNet UK. "We had aimed for the end of September, but we're now looking at somewhere in October."
Cern has revised its LHC restart date a number of times. An original October 2008 estimate of an April 2009 restart was pushed back to the end of the summer, and was then revised to September.
The experiment, which is designed to improve scientific understanding of the nature of matter, had to be halted nine days after it was fully powered up, after an electrical malfunction caused a leak of liquid helium.
In May, details emerged that the malfunction had been caused by a faulty splice between two of the busbars that carry the superconducting cable in the LHC. Gillies said that the problem had not been in the design, but in the implementation of the electrical circuits for the quench system.
"It was a quality-control flaw," said Gillies. "Most of the splices were done well, but a few of the solder joints were not perfectly carried out. We know there were a number of faulty splices in the machine. We've repaired a few, and we'll be repairing more."
Cern has developed non-invasive ways of testing the electrical circuits in some of the systems, which have remained cooled to 80 Kelvin, said Gillies. In circuits where faults have been found, Gillies said that the surrounding sectors will be warmed to room temperature, and then the circuits will be repaired and tested again.
Gillies said that Cern won't be able to give an exact restart date until August, when testing is completed. Cern has not decided whether to run the experiment at 4 TeV or at 5 TeV. The world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab near Chicago, runs at 1 TeV.
This article was originally posted on ZDNet UK.
Talkback Most Recent of 23 Talkback(s)
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GuidingLight22nd Jun 2009 -
T1Oracle22nd Jun 2009 -
LiquidLearner22nd Jun 2009 -
This cracked me UP.
"The experiment, which is designed to improve scientific understanding of the nature of matter, had to be halted nine days after it was fully powered up, after an electrical malfunction caused a leak of liquid helium."
We want to tampoer with the nature of matter itself but we can't handle an electrical valve???
No_Ax_to_Grind22nd Jun 2009 -
Cracks me too...
Just like the Shuttle missions that get delayed by a defective value or
sensor...where are they getting these parts...the bargain bin at Joe's
Discount Plumbing and Electrical! LOL!
I'm sure there is more to it then this, but it does seem funny.
CowLauncher22nd Jun 2009 -
I just think there may be some flawed thinking
when someone tells me they are unlocking the secrets of time, energy, and matter but they don't understand how to build a working electric solenoid valve. Especially one that could cause this kind of damage.
Maybe its me but I kind of believe that if you are messing around with creating black holes and such you should build multiple fail safes into the system. Aw what the heck, its not that critical, we are only smashing atoms into the very stuff the universe is made of, What could go wrong???No_Ax_to_Grind22nd Jun 2009 -
Right, you are surely smarter than them!
Do you know how many "fail safes" there are? How do you know it wasn't a fail safe that shut it down?
Physicists have been smashing atoms and particles together for several decades. I suspect they know something about it. They are pushing the envelope, and perhaps they are still learning about cryogenic electrical circuits. How much do you know about them?
ron.cleaver@...22nd Jun 2009 -
Actually, I know quite a bit about them.
And if an electrical valve failure caused all this damage, it did not have the proper fail safes. It really is that simple. I'll bet you a weeks wages they increased the fail safes during this repair.
Then again, I am not trying to create black holes on the only planet that can support us. If I were I think I would be a wee bit more concerned with things like safety and fail safes. Heck, for someone that is going after the greatest mystery in the universe, you would think an electrical valve would be kids play...No_Ax_to_Grind22nd Jun 2009 -
It was a faulty solder joint....
>"It was a quality-control flaw," said Gillies. "Most of the splices were done well, but a few of the solder joints were not perfectly carried out. We know there were a number of faulty splices in the machine. We've repaired a few, and we'll be repairing more."
Sometimes you can learn even more by just reading the article. (couldn't resist)
WiredGuy22nd Jun 2009 -
$5000 for a hammer.
Is not a bargain at all. But Uncle Sam have enough money to spend :$5 in a hammer and $4995 in commission, representation expenses, a couple of jacuzzi and so on.
magallanes23rd Jun 2009 -
Quebec-french22nd Jun 2009 -
magallanes23rd Jun 2009
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Maybe It Can Reverse Time
And we can go back to before Pelosi was elected by a nation of fools and THEN AGAIN, another foolish election in 2008 with Obama. Would be nice to have a redo.
VoiceOfLogic22nd Jun 2009 -
LiquidLearner22nd Jun 2009
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No, it would be fun to go back and
stick it to the republican religous whack-a-dos over and over again.No_Ax_to_Grind22nd Jun 2009
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