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CERN Dismantles Large Hadron Collider for Supercharged Upgrade
17 Sep
Summary
- The Large Hadron Collider is being dismantled for a four-year overhaul.
- The upgraded machine, High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider, will increase collisions tenfold.
- New superconducting magnets and technology are key to the upgrade costing $1.46 billion.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has powered down the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a significant four-year overhaul. This extensive upgrade will transform the existing particle accelerator into a new machine, designated the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC).
The primary objective of this extensive renovation is to increase the rate of subatomic collisions by a factor of ten. This amplified collision rate is anticipated to significantly improve the likelihood of groundbreaking discoveries concerning the fundamental particles that constitute matter and energy.
This ambitious project carries an estimated cost of 1.189 billion Swiss Francs, approximately $1.46 billion. The upgrade will incorporate state-of-the-art superconducting equipment, robust protections against heightened radiation levels, advanced computing technologies, and crucially, twelve new niobium tin magnets designed to precisely guide particle beams for collision.
"We're installing technology that just did not exist when we built the Large Hadron Collider," stated Mark Thomson, director-general of CERN. This advancement represents a monumental leap in the volume of data that scientists will be able to collect and analyze, promising unprecedented insights into the universe.
