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LHC Knocked Out By Another Power Failure
known_ID writes "The Large Hadron Collider — the most puissant particle-punisher ever assembled by the human race — has suffered another major power failure, knocking not only the atom smasher itself but even its associated websites offline."
"Diesels cut in OK" noted the controllers, adding that the Meyrin site is now drawing limited grid power from an alternative connection via the Prevessin site. The boffins don't anticipate resuming operations until at least 12:00 local time today.
So it was just a temporary glitch. Move along people, nothing to see here...
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It's in TFA
And Lead. Don't forget about ALICE.
Write your representatives! Repeal the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics!
he needed a replacement miniature black hole for his suitcase-time-machine
which flashed over. They don't actually what the bushing is ATTACHED to, which could be almost anything. Such bushings are the standard terminal connections on HV switchgear such as transformers, capacitors, reclosers, etc. The bushing itself is most likely replaceable individually, though.
Hopefully, it just flashed over from foreign debris (another baguette?), and did little damage except to itself. Such a flashover should have tripped upstream circuit breakers, resulting in the power outage.
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Is that actually they still have to rely on backup Diesels. It takes technology over 100 years old to keep the LHC running in a power outage. Schroedinger did his best work over 80 years ago. The Manhattan project was successful over 60 years ago. Yet we still have to rely on lumps of metal being banged around by crude chemical combustion to provide backup power for cutting edge research.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
In 2017, they do!
Dark Reflection
And yet no one gives it the credit it deserves. See b3ta for the newsletter it starred in. All hail b3ta (and this b3tan), forever spreading virals without acknowledgement.
That's not quite true.
Experimental accelerator physicists (not particle physicists) will come up with a conceptual design for the machine that fits the particle physicists requirements, and they will then work with engineers to design and build it.
Most of the designing and building is done by properly qualified engineers, not scientists.
No, it's not. There is a ton of things out there, even in the furthest, most desolate parts of space. The cosmic microwave background is about 2.75K and is pervasive throughout the universe, for instance.
-Bucky
...Yes, it cost $6b.
To put this in perspective, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle program cost $5.6b, and the resulting machine sucks.
Which is the bigger waste?
M-
During the Gulf War, M2 Bradleys destroyed more Iraqi armored vehicles than the M1 Abrams. It generally replaces the M113 which had only a single machine gun mount out in the open. It's somewhat vulnerable to IEDs and RPGs, but in practice causalities have been light. It can fire on the move due to the active stabilization of the cockpit. I've been in one. You feel a lot safer in one than in an M113 or an armored Humvee. I'd say bar the M1 tank, it's pretty safe. It does what it was designed to do.
There are countless backup generators and numerous failsafes that will safely redirect the beam into one of the many beam dumps, which are basically big blocks of concrete.
The worst that can happen: all of the failsafes fail, backup generators fail, and the LHC damages itself, requiring several years of repairs. That's the biggest disaster that the LHC could possibly ever produce. Keep in mind, it's already 100 meters underground, a length through which the particle beam couldn't penetrate even if it somehow scattered straight upward.