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Short Circuit In LHC Could Delay Restart By Weeks

hypnosec writes: On March 21 CERN detected an intermittent short circuit to ground in one of the LHC's magnet circuits. Repairs could delay the restart by anywhere between a few days and several weeks. CERN revealed that the short circuit affected one of LHC's powerful electromagnets, thereby delaying preparations in sector 4-5 of the machine. They confirmed that seven of the machine's eight sectors have been successfully commissioned to 6.5 TeV per beam, but they won't be circulating a beam in the LHC this week. Though the short circuit issue is well understood, resolving it will take time, since it's in a cold section of the machine and repairs may therefore require warming and re-cooling.

3 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just great... by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you don't have a crowbar on reach at all moments, you're gambling with your own life.

  2. Re:How do we know the Higgs was really discovered by Thanshin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Experiment result : "A squirrel fell on the azidoazide azide magnetic container, leveling the lab and leaving a 23 feet deep crater where the Dean's office used to be."

    Conclusion : "Higgs Boson!"

  3. Sun and moon the same size by PeterM+from+Berkeley · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You realize that the sun/moon size thing is just a temporary condition, right? The moon's been receding from Earth and will continue to do so, so in a few hundred million years it'll be noticeably smaller than the sun and we will have no more total solar eclipses.

    And the dinosaurs probably got to enjoy more eclipses because the moon was closer then.

    Given that, it's hard for me to read anything into the sun/moon size thing other than that it's a coincidence.

    --PM