Winter shutdown for damaged Hadron Collider

Scientists will have to wait until next spring to use the world’s largest particle collider because of repairs and a winter shutdown, CERN decided today.

Spokesman James Gillies of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research said it would take too long to finish announced repairs before the shutdown in November.

CERN has to wait several weeks to warm up the damaged area from near absolute zero before experts can go inside and make repairs, he said. Then the machine would have to be re-chilled over another month.

He said the decision was made today that the process would take until the winter shutdown, starting in mid-November.

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