The LHC particle accelerator is being built at Geneva, Switzerland’s CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).

When in full operation, the LHC particle accelerator will accelerate beams of particles around a 27-kilometer (16.8-mile) (circumference), 21-meter (68.9-foot length), 16-meter (52.5-foot diameter), and 12,500-ton (weight) cylindrical underground chamber to energies never before generated on the Earth.

At full power, the LHC will operate at 7 TeV (teraelectron volt), where one TeV (or, one trillion electron volts) equals 1.60217646 × 10**-7 joules. It will possess a collision-energy of 14 TeV.

The LHC will operate by accelerating sub-atomic particles, specifically protons, to high speeds near the speed of light (the accelerator part) and then by smashing these particles together (the collider part), all within an underground concrete-lined tunnel. It is an international project involving scientists from the 26 member-countries of CERN, along with several other countries.

It has been under construction for about 15 years, where the critical parts of the project are located between 50 and 150 meters (165 and 490 feet) below the surface of the Earth. The underground complex crosses the borders between France and Switzerland, but the majority of it is located in France. Once operational, the LHC is expected to have a lifetime of about 15 years.

The beginning of operations is about six-months behind schedule due to a series of misfortunate accidents and mistakes. In one incident, small-sized magnets, which are located around the tunnel, were damaged when placed under pressure as part of a process to test the LHC. These magnets had to be repaired or replaced.

In addition, one of the large 20-ton magnets was damaged when it was lifted off its mountings, which forced an evacuation when the tunnel was filled with helium gas and dust. The problem was brought about by mistakes in the building of the magnets and anchors.

The website for the LHC is: http://lhc.web.cern.ch/lhc/.

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