LHC Knocked Out By Another Power Failure 338
known_ID writes "The Large Hadron Collider — the most puissant particle-punisher ever assembled by the human race — has suffered another major power failure, knocking not only the atom smasher itself but even its associated websites offline."
Minor inconvenience (Score:5, Informative)
"Diesels cut in OK" noted the controllers, adding that the Meyrin site is now drawing limited grid power from an alternative connection via the Prevessin site. The boffins don't anticipate resuming operations until at least 12:00 local time today.
So it was just a temporary glitch. Move along people, nothing to see here...
Re:HEY DOUCHE CMDRTACO -- atomsmasher IS NOT A WOR (Score:1, Informative)
Re:And once again, the world is safe (Score:3, Informative)
And Lead. Don't forget about ALICE [wikipedia.org].
John Titor's fault (Score:4, Informative)
he needed a replacement miniature black hole for his suitcase-time-machine
Looks like an insulator bushing... (Score:4, Informative)
which flashed over. They don't actually what the bushing is ATTACHED to, which could be almost anything. Such bushings are the standard terminal connections on HV switchgear such as transformers, capacitors, reclosers, etc. The bushing itself is most likely replaceable individually, though.
Hopefully, it just flashed over from foreign debris (another baguette?), and did little damage except to itself. Such a flashover should have tripped upstream circuit breakers, resulting in the power outage.
The sign of the failure of particle physics (Score:1, Informative)
Re:I'm writing this comment from 2017 (Score:5, Informative)
In 2017, they do!
Re:video of the event (Score:4, Informative)
Re:engineers vs. scientists (Score:3, Informative)
That's not quite true.
Experimental accelerator physicists (not particle physicists) will come up with a conceptual design for the machine that fits the particle physicists requirements, and they will then work with engineers to design and build it.
Most of the designing and building is done by properly qualified engineers, not scientists.
Re:From the article (Score:3, Informative)
No, it's not. There is a ton of things out there, even in the furthest, most desolate parts of space. The cosmic microwave background is about 2.75K and is pervasive throughout the universe, for instance.
Re:Take it easy people ... (Score:1, Informative)
...Yes, it cost $6b.
To put this in perspective, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle program cost $5.6b, and the resulting machine sucks.
Which is the bigger waste?
M-
During the Gulf War, M2 Bradleys destroyed more Iraqi armored vehicles than the M1 Abrams. It generally replaces the M113 which had only a single machine gun mount out in the open. It's somewhat vulnerable to IEDs and RPGs, but in practice causalities have been light. It can fire on the move due to the active stabilization of the cockpit. I've been in one. You feel a lot safer in one than in an M113 or an armored Humvee. I'd say bar the M1 tank, it's pretty safe. It does what it was designed to do.
Re:Is this a good thing to happen now? (Score:3, Informative)
There are countless backup generators and numerous failsafes that will safely redirect the beam into one of the many beam dumps, which are basically big blocks of concrete.
The worst that can happen: all of the failsafes fail, backup generators fail, and the LHC damages itself, requiring several years of repairs. That's the biggest disaster that the LHC could possibly ever produce. Keep in mind, it's already 100 meters underground, a length through which the particle beam couldn't penetrate even if it somehow scattered straight upward.