The Large Hadron Collider was stopped to save electricity

Problems with electricity disturb not only Ukrainians. As reported by Sueddeutsche Zeitung, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider was shut down two weeks ahead of schedule to save electricity.

The Large Hadron Collider went on winter break ahead of time, but in 2023 its working time will be reduced by 20 percent. The French electricity supplier EDF asked CERN to save electricity. This should significantly relieve the power system of France – during a full year of operation, the LHC accelerator consumes as much electricity as a city with 300,000 inhabitants.

As a result of the reduction in working time, scientists will receive less data for research, said Joachim Mnich, head of LHC research. But we tolerate this limitation. It is also known that there is pressure to save energy on some research institutes in Germany.

“If electricity prices remain high in the long term, this could mean that we have to reduce the physics program or stretch it out over time,” said Joachim Mnich.

In addition, as part of energy saving, it will be checked where else electricity can be saved. Among other things, a new housing estate near CERN will soon be heated with waste heat from the energy consumed. And from the end of 2023, CERN buildings will be supplied with waste heat from the new data processing center.

Economy measures are also being implemented in other scientific institutions of some European countries, primarily in Germany, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports.

We remind that the Large Hadron Collider with an accelerator ring 27 km long was commissioned in 2010. It was with the help of the Large Hadron Collider that the existence of the Higgs boson was confirmed in 2012. At the end of 2018, the collider was shut down for a long period for further modernization of the accelerator and detectors. Collider started working again only on April 22, 2022.