Large Hadron Collider Finally Complete

By Alexander G. Higgins
MSNBC

Engineers on Friday fitted the last major piece into what they say will be the world’s largest scientific instrument — a nuclear particle accelerator in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) tunnel under the Swiss-French border.

The wheel-shaped piece of equipment, with a diameter of about 30 feet (9 meters), was lowered down a 330-foot (100-meter) shaft and fitted with other equipment known as detectors in an underground room the size of a cathedral.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time there is a feeling of relief,” Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said as he watched.

The startup date for the Large Hadron Collider, eagerly awaited by scientists planning to use it for studying the makeup of matter and the universe, has not been set. Aymar said the $2 billion project, under construction since 2003, appeared to be on target for completion by this summer.

“For such a huge, complex enterprise, difficulties are there,” Aymar, a French scientist, told The Associated Press in an interview at CERN, as the organization is known from its French acronym.