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."

Comments

Minor inconvenience

[Shrike82]

Since the title and summary are short on details, brace yourself, I read the article. From TFA:

"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...

John Titor's fault

[WormholeFiend]

he needed a replacement miniature black hole for his suitcase-time-machine

Looks like an insulator bushing...

[Ellis D. Tripp]

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.

Re:I'm writing this comment from 2017

[OakDragon]

That's the year he was born.

Darned 8 year old think they know everything.

In 2017, they do!

Re:video of the event

[BeardedChimp]

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.