The world's largest atom smasher will likely be fired up again in
October after scientists have carried out tests and put in place further safety
measures to prevent a repeat of the faults that sidelined the US$10 billion
machine shortly after startup last year, the operator said
Saturday.
The Large Hadron Collider was meant to restart
in late September, but that will probably be pushed back two to three weeks, a
spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research
said.
"We're pretty confident about the dates," James
Gillies told The Associated Press, adding that scientists believe they
understand the error that happened last year and how to prevent it occurring
again.
An electrical fault caused by a faulty splice in
the wiring shut down the giant machine on September 19, nine days after it was
started up with great fanfare.
The 20-nation operator,
known as CERN, expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about US$37
million over the course of several years, Gillies
said.
Once it is running, scientists will use the machine
to smash together protons from hydrogen atoms inside a 27km circular tunnel
under the Swiss-French border near Geneva. By recording what particles are
produced by the collisions they hope to better understand the makeup of the
universe and everything in it.
AP