Large Hadron Collider Restart Delayed Yet Again

The Large Hadron Collider, damaged by a liquid helium leak relatively soon after being started for the first time, had already had its restart date pushed back from a few months, to spring, to June, to late summer. Now it is being pushed back to the end of September - over a year after the world's largest particle accelerator was knocked offline.

According to the press release, collisions could follow the restart in late October. The LHC would shut down shortly over Christmas, and then run through to autumn 2010.


CERN Director General Rolf Heuer said:

"The schedule we have now is without a doubt the best for the LHC and for the physicists waiting for data. It is cautious, ensuring that all the necessary work is done on the LHC before we start up, yet it allows physics research to begin this year."

The LHC is located on the Swiss-French border. Those concerned about Apocalyptic scenarios are afraid of the creation of microscopic black holes, or strangelets, or even breaking through into another dimension and unleashing oh, things we'd be better off without, such as in the movie The Mist (pictured below).


Hey, you never know, right? Lawsuits and death threats over the possible end of the world preceded the firing up of the LHC. Well, at least we know we have until the end of September.