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LHC Will Be Shut Down In 2011 Because of "Mistake"

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it dept.

astroengine follows up to a story about the LHC shutting down that seems to have hit all the news replicators today. "It's to be expected when pushing the frontiers of physics, but the LHC's epic 'will it or won't it' saga continues. Due to an unforeseen construction mistake, the LHC will cease experiments for a year (starting around late-2011) so repairs and upgrades can be carried out. For now, accelerated particles will have a maximum energy of 7TeV (half the power of the LHC's design maximum), which is ample for at least 18 months of experiments before shutdown."

1 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. You know things are bad when ... by dtmos · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... the article linked in the story starts off by debunking the submission.

    UPDATE (March 10, 12:45am PST): With thanks to Prof. Jon Butterworth, member of the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC, I've been informed that the plan to shut down the LHC for an extended period of time was actually announced in early February by Dr. Steve Myers after the LHC Performance Workshop, in Chamonix, France. So rather than this being a sudden development, it is part of a planned shutdown.

    Prof. Brian Cox, also an ATLAS physicist, confirmed this fact via Twitter:

    There is nothing wrong with LHC - lazy journalism. Schedule announced in Jan, 18 months physics, 12 month engineering shutdown afterwards.

    Cox pointed out that accelerator shutdowns are more routine than the BBC article (the source of this blog post) suggests:

    ALL particle accelerators have 6 - 12 month regular shutdowns for maintenance and upgrades. That's how complex machines are operated!