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Weasel Apparently Shuts Down the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

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Doesn't it have thick concrete walls running its entire length? Did some foreman see a screen door on one of the delivery trucks and think 'I guess we might as well use this'?
 
1. I thought the LHC was buried ~100M below the surface, no?
2. How are important electrical cables to the most expensive machine ever not protected by a conduit?
3. How is your system so vulnerable that a bird dropping a baguette on it can cause problems?
 

cameron

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1. I thought the LHC was buried ~100M below the surface, no?
2. How are important electrical cables to the most expensive machine ever not protected by a conduit?
3. How is your system so vulnerable that a bird dropping a baguette on it can cause problems?

News story from 2009 when the bird/baguette incident happened. The Guardian:
The particle accelerator, which is buried 100m underground near Geneva, is currently undergoing tests ahead of its proposed restart date later this month, but the testing process was stopped on Monday after the power supply to the collider was cut.

A Cern spokeswoman, Christine Sutton, said scientists had headed above ground to investigate when they made their discovery.

"The problem related to the high voltage supply," Sutton said. "We get mains voltage from the grid, and there was an interruption in the power supply, just like you might have a power cut at home. The person who went to investigate discovered bread and a bird eating the bread."

Sutton said the bird and its bread were discovered at a compensating capacitor – one of the points where the mains electricity supply enters the collider from above ground.


The incident cut power to one of the collider's cooling plants, causing temperatures to rise by more than 3C in part of the tunnel.

Superconducting magnets within the LHC require a temperature of 1.9C above absolute zero (-273.15C) to steer, and ultimately collide, particles around the 16.8 mile (27km) circuit.
Reads like the bird knew what it was doing.
 

cameron

Member
They're up and running.
CERNpress ‏@CERNpress
Beams are back in the #LHC, in preparation for physics #RestartLHC #13TeV
CtPbNBg.gif


Press release about the incident:
At around 5:30 am on Friday 29 April 2016, a small beech marten found its way onto a large, open-air electrical transformer situated above ground at CERN, causing a short circuit and cutting the power to part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The concerned part of the LHC stopped immediately and safely. Since then the entire machine has remained in standby mode.

When the little animal jumped onto the transformer, it created a small electrical arc, damaging high-voltage transformer connections.

Many of CERN’s sites are located in the countryside and similar events have happened a few times in the past. They are part of life of such an accelerator, as with any large industrial installation.

A team assessed the situation over the weekend and found no indication of damage inside the transformer. Repairs to the connections are hoped to be completed by the end of the week, as the LHC continues to prepare for the 2016 physics run.
http://home.cern/about/updates/2016/05/repairs-ongoing-electrical-installations-cern
 
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