Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider

A small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument.

The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable.
...
Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine fully ready to smash might take another week or two. "It may be mid-May," he says

Source: NPR - Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider

Pop goes the weasel!

Actually, all kidding aside, that is not good news. They run tests on a schedule and the slip of that testing schedule will brush up against repairs, upgrades, etc.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

So the weasel was after the insulation, maybe? The metal conductor? What…

Weasels are meat eaters, unless it was building a nest, donna make any sense.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Here they claim it was a marten. indico.cern.ch...

short circuit caused by fouine

As we see in this video, martens are known trouble makers in Switzerland.



I for one welcome our new mustelidae overlords.

This roasted weasel smells fishy to me...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

If a gopher can wreak havoc at a golf course called Bushwood one can only imagine the damage a weasel could do at a collider...

a reply to: intrptr

I think they just don't want to say the word, rat.

A load of Soviet missiles were once disabled by swarms of rats that used the wires as protection from the Cold. A problem that took "hundreds of repairmen and cats to fix"

CERN had been ramping up this year's testing.

On Friday, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) opened its doors to allow particles to travel around the ring for the first time since the year-end technical stop (YETS) began in December 2015. At 10.30 am, a first bunch was circulating and by midday the beam was circulating in both directions.

2015 saw the start of Run 2 for the LHC, the largest accelerator in the world where the LHC reached a proton-proton collision energy of 13 TeV -- the highest ever reached by a particle accelerator. Beam intensity also increased and, by the end of 2015, 2240 protons bunches per beam were being collided. This year, the aim is to increase the number of bunches even further to the target of 2748.
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Powering tests finished on 18 March 2016, and in the following week the LHC has been undergoing the final phase of preparation before beam.

Source: CERN News, March 29, 2016 - Return of the LHC – season 2 continues

Power surges and sags are not good for electrical equipment (or weasels, apparently) so everything will have to be re-checked. Hope their testing schedule has some leniency.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

It's rats. They'll never get rid of them.

originally posted by: Kester
a reply to: intrptr

I think they just don't want to say the word, rat.

Ahhh, and how could they tell what it was if its all incinerated?

Happened to my company, the lights dimmed one day and the circuits blew. When they opened the service box all that was left was four feet, a slimy matt of hair and the terrible oder of fricasseed rat.

It got i through an unused knockout on the side of the box. Tell the people at the collider to inspect all their electrical service boxes for openings.

a reply to: Kester

But it is better with weasel!

Allows me to get a Zappa reference in! Weasels Ripped My Flesh!

a reply to: Kester

rom the NPR article

The LHC is located outside of Geneva. "We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals everywhere." There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems.

Lake Geneva is near by so it could be a water martin. Never heard "fouine" before (French??). And my guess is building a nest.

Hope it is not rats!

Someone sent a weasel from the future back to stop the LHC?

And it was a suicide mission...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Cute, but deadly.

a reply to: intrptr

Rodents love real rubber! Apparently there is animal products used as stabilizers and to keep them flexible. Plastics use soy (I think) so it is all palatable to them!

a reply to: roadgravel

"Come with me if you want to live" - Terminator 2, Weasel Judgment Day

a reply to: Kester

Oh my god...cute and cuddly overload

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

By saying it was some kind of weasel they are implying a rat hunter. Clever.

a reply to: Kester

Oh, that is clever! Almost all large spaces have other critters utilizing the unused portions. 17 mile long ring would be pretty tempting to any rodents.

The NPR article has a link to official release from CERN. CERN LHC Daily Summary (.pdf)

It states:

5:30 Severe electrical perturbation

Not the best week for LHC!

Nicely understated! And it looks like they had a testing beam up for 7 hours prior to the outage.

And specifically about the "perturbation"...

Electrical perturbation
• Affected all accelerators
• Most LHC magnets performed “Fast Aborts”
• Main circuits with earth fault, checked and
fine
• Several current leads quenched
• Cryo down everywhere
• RF He purge (standard)
• Cause: short circuit caused by fouine on
66kV transformer in point 8
• Transformer connections damaged