CERN LHC to shut down for 2 years for maintenance

CERN has announced that the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful atom smasher, will be shut down for a period of two years for upgrade purposes.  The maintenance project will begin in March 2013.  It will reopen in early 2015. The shutdown will enable engineers to lay superconducting cables in huge numbers thereby bringing the machine up to “full design energy.”  The upgrade project is expected to cost $40 million.  This will be its first upgrade since it opened in 2008.

Sources: CERN