The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle smasher being built at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, suffered a serious setback when a support structure for key magnets failed during routine tests on 27 March. The magnet assembly was made by Fermilab, CERN's main rival in Batavia, Illinois.
The so-called inner triplet magnets are designed to squeeze the LHC's counter-rotating proton beams and make them collide at four points along the 27-kilometre-long tunnel. The magnets are cooled using superfluid helium at 1.9 kelvins inside a vacuum, but a structure holding the magnets in place broke when asymmetric forces of the kind expected during the LHC's operation were applied.
"It wasn't strong enough," says Fermilab's Peter Limon, who is now at CERN. He adds that "people are disappointed, of course, but there are no recriminations".
Limon is also concerned about a cryogenic box that feeds power and helium to the magnets, which was near the accident. "We have yet to determine if it's damaged," he told New Scientist.
Scientists at both Fermilab and CERN are studying the problem and are considering bringing the magnets and their support structures to the surface from their tunnel 100 metres underground. "We are separating the devices, in preparation of bringing some or all of them upstairs," he says.
Limon says the problem may cause short-term delays in the construction of the LHC, but believes it may still be able to open as planned in late 2007.
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Unless of course you also read this:
The last quadripolar magnet has been installed in the world's biggest particle accelerator, marking the completion of Europe's Large Hadron Collider.
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Somebody got it wrong it would seem.
