At its 147th meeting in Geneva last week, the CERN Council heard news on progress towards start-up of the laboratory’s flagship research facility, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – a huge consumer of liquid helium.
Commissioning of the 27km LHC began in January 2007 when the first cool-down of one of the machine’s eight sectors began. At present, five sectors are at or close to their operating temperature of 1.9 degrees above absolute zero and the remaining three are believed to be approaching that temperature.
Once all sectors are cold, electrical testing will be concluded in readiness for first beams, currently scheduled for August.
“The accelerator, detectors and computing are all on course and we are looking forward to the earliest possible LHC start-up,” said CERN Director General Robert Aymar.
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