Restart of 'Big Bang' machine delayed

The planned restart of the world’s largest atom smasher has been delayed, its operator said today.

Scientists have to carry out further tests and put in place more safety measures to prevent a repeat of the faults which sidelined the $10bn (€7.14bn) machine shortly after start-up last year.

The Large Hadron Collider was meant to restart in late September, but that will probably be pushed back two to three weeks to October, a spokesman for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research said.

“We’re pretty confident about the dates,” said spokesman James Gillies, 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$37m (€26.4m) over the course of several years, Mr Gillies said.

Once it is running, scientists will use the machine to smash together protons from hydrogen atoms inside a 17-mile (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 make-up of the universe and everything in it.