Europe's energy crisis seems to be worsening, which may force the world's largest and most powerful collider to shut down, as reported first by The Wall Street Journal.
Russia's Economic Warfare
According to Serge Claudet, the head of the center's energy management panel, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, is developing plans to turn off some of its particle accelerators during times of high demand.
Claudet added that CERN is now considering how to shut down the Large Hadron Collider for a while, in case it becomes necessary.
He said that the nuclear organization's main concern in grid stability is to prevent a blackout in the area.
WSJ noted that this highlights how Moscow's decision to use Europe's reliance on Russia's energy supply as a weapon of economic warfare has far-reaching effects.
Following the announcement on Friday by Russian energy giant Gazprom PJSC that it would permanently halt natural gas deliveries through the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the continent is now considering emergency measures as winter approaches, and gas rationing becomes more likely.
On Sept. 2, Sweden and Finland said they would provide financial assistance to local electricity producers because they believed Gazprom's action harmed the region's power market and overall financial stability.
The European Union is putting together proposals to reform the market to lessen some of the suffering.
Large energy consumers throughout the continent are preparing to reduce their usage during the winter when demand for gas and electricity for heating is at its highest.
Since they are unable to compete in the worldwide market due to the rising cost of power and gas, several firms in Europe, including those that produce fertilizer and steel furnaces, are closing.
LHC's Energy Consumption
CERN is one of France's biggest electricity consumers and is located on a sizable complex that spans the French-Swiss border. It uses about 200 megawatts of power at its most intense, a third less than the surrounding city of Geneva, as per WSJ.
The discovery of the Higgs boson, a particle that gives all other particles mass, in 2012 is the most well-known outcome of the Large Hadron Collider or LHC.
However, even when the particle beam is off, the LHC still uses a lot of electricity since it relies on superconducting magnets that must be chilled to -456 degrees Fahrenheit to bend the particle beam.
This means that shutting down the LHC will only result in a 25% reduction in energy use. The LHC experiments could be held for weeks if the magnets are allowed to warm up.
The end of the month will see CERN officials outline their plan for suspending experiments to representatives of the governments that sponsor the organization.
Related Article: 'World's Most Powerful Collider:' Large Hadron Collider Will Provide 1.6 Billion Proton Collisions Per Second!
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
