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CERN Engineers Have To Identify and Disconnect 9,000 Obsolete Cables (vice.com)
An anonymous reader writes: CERN, home to the Large Hadron Collider, has grand plans to update the world's largest particle accelerator complex in the next few years. But engineers have identified a barrier to the upgrade: there's no space for new cables in the injectors that accelerate particles before they enter the LHC. In the past, when parts of the accelerators have been upgraded or added to, engineers would often additionally replace the cables that connected them. In the process, they would leave in place the old cables that were no longer in use. Now, a heap of obsolete cables are blocking the way to install new ones needed for the accelerator’s next big upgrade. To make space, CERN engineers have set out to identify and remove the old, unused cables. All 9,000 of them.
Yes, but there's a point that doesn't work any more. The original injectors at CERN are more than thirty years old; some sites are probably 40 or 50. You find me a cheap and effective way of labelling cables that doesnt' fall apart over that time span...