Faulty Transformer Sidelines Atom Smasher

Tag : transformer

(CBS/AP) The world's largest particle collider malfunctioned within hours ofits launch to great fanfare , but its operator didn't report the problem for a week.

In a statement Thursday, the European Organization for NuclearResearch reported for the first time that a 30-ton transformer thatcools part of the collider broke, forcing physicists to stop usingthe atom smasher just a day after starting it up last week.

The faulty transformer has been replaced and the ring in the17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border has beencooled back down to near zero on the Kelvin scale — minus459.67 degrees Fahrenheit — the most efficient operatingtemperature, said a statement by CERN, as the organization isknown.

When the transformer malfunctioned, operating temperatures rosefrom below 2 Kelvin to 4.5 Kelvin — extraordinarily cold bymost standards, but warmer than the normal operating temperature.

CERN had not reported any problems with the project since itslaunch Sept. 10, but issued its statement shortly after TheAssociated Press called asking about rumors of troubles.

Physicists said it wasn't surprising problems would occur ingetting a huge and immensely complicated collection of equipmentlike the Large Hadron Collider up and running smoothly.

"This is arguably the largest machine built by humankind, isincredibly complex, and involves components of varying ages andorigins, so I'm not at all surprised to hear of some glitches,"Steve Giddings, physics professor at University of California,Santa Barbara. "It's a real challenge requiring incredible talent,brain power and coordination to get it running."

Judith Jackson, spokesman for the Fermi National AcceleratorLaboratory in Batavia, Ill., echoed that view.

"We know how complex and extraordinary it is to start up one ofthese machines. No one's built one of these before and in theprocess of starting it up there will inevitably be glitches," shesaid.

Fermilab is home to the Tevatron, an accelerator that collidesprotons and antiprotons in a 4-mile-long underground ring to allowphysicists to study subatomic particles. Jackson said transformermalfunctions can be common and aren't dangerous.

"These things happen," she said. "It's a little setback and itsounds like they've dealt with it and are moving forward."

The Large Hadron Collider is designed to collide protons in thebeams so that they shatter and reveal more about the makeup ofmatter and the universe.

CERN physicists have dismissed fears among some that such experiments might exceed their wildestconjectures and possible spawn a black hole here on Earth.

After it was started up Sept. 10, scientists circled a beam ofprotons in a clockwise direction at the speed of light. They shutthat down, then turned on a counterclockwise beam.

"Several hundred orbits" were made, CERN's statement said.

On the evening of Sept. 11, scientists had succeeded in controllingthe counterclockwise beam with equipment that keeps the protons inthe tightly bunched stream that will be needed for collisions, butthen the transformer failed and the system was shut down, thestatement said.

The clockwise beam was not on at the time. Now that the transformerhas been replaced and the equipment rechilled, scientists expect totry soon to tighten the clockwise beam and prepare experiments incoming weeks, the statement said.

Before the problem occurred, scientists had said it would probablybe several weeks before the first significant collisions wereattempted.