Last interconnect sealed in giant collider

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- An underground ceremony on the Franco-Swiss border marked the sealing of the last interconnect in the world's largest cryogenic system in an atom smasher.

Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, sealed the last interconnect in the cryogenic system of the Large Hadron Collider, which is to become the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

The LHC’s cryogenic system has the task of cooling some 36,800 tons of material to a temperature of just 1.9 degrees above absolute zero. To do that, more than 10,000 tons of liquid nitrogen and 130 tons of liquid helium will be deployed through the cryogenic system that contains more than 40,000 leak-tight welds.

Wednesday’s ceremony marked the end of a two-year program to connect all the main dipole and quadrupole magnets in the LHC, which is expected to begin operations next year.