quote:

Leak deals new setback to supercollider


Coolant system loses helium during testing, forcing another shutdown

GENEVA - After a widely heralded startup, the world's largest particle collider has suffered two malfunctions in the past week — setting off two separate rounds of troubleshooting.


The first problem with the Large Hadron Collider occurred within hours of the $10 billion project's official launch on Sept. 10, but the operators at Europe's CERN particle-physics center didn't make the glitch public for a week.

The collider was briefly brought back into operation on Thursday, but sensors detected a large helium leak from the device's cooling system during testing on Friday. That forced another shutdown, and an investigation of the problem was expected to continue through the weekend.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26780393