Atom smasher will have to wait until spring

posted on 24 Sep 2008 21:50 by technologynews

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- The European nuclear research organization says repairs and the onset of winter will delay the startup of the world's largest particle collider until spring.

The collider's ALICE experiment will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions.

Spokesman James Gillies of the European Organization for Nuclear Research says it will take too long to finish announced repairs before the November shutdown.

Gillies said Tuesday that it will take several weeks to warm up the damaged area from near absolute zero before experts can go in and make repairs.

Then the machine will have to be rechilled over another month.

He told The Associated Press that the decision was made Tuesday that this will take until the winter shutdown starting in mid-November.

Gillies says the resumption of the Large Hadron Collider should proceed quickly next spring.