Switerland’s Particle Accelerator Breaks, 2 Months to Repair
Associated Press
Published: September 20, 2008
GENEVA (AP) - CERN says the damage to its new particle collider was in a different place than a previous transformer failure.
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, says the new problem occurred during a test at high electrical current. The incident resulted in a large helium leak into the 17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border.
A CERN statement said the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets.
A CERN spokesman says the superconducter apparently stopped and the high current then proved too much for the wire connecting the magnets. He says it will take at least two months to fix the problem.
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