Large Hadron Collider Suffers Another Power Cut

Just a week after triumphantly smashing its first protons, the Large Hadron Collider has experienced another power failure which took not only the collider itself offline but temporarily killed its website.  According to the LHC controllers, the failure took place in the early hours of the morning an affected an 18,000 volt power line; before the supercooled magnets had a chance to warm up, however, the diesel backup generators kicked in.

No specific cause to the problem has been confirmed, though the LHC project released this image of the broken component involved.  Currently the system is partially running from power sourced through a different supply elsewhere on the site, and no lasting damage has been made to the LHC as a whole.

Operation of the LHC has been punctuated with problems; most recently the systems overheated after a piece of bread – believed to be dropped by a bird – short-circuited electronics at part of the installation open to the air.  Previous issues with power have seen the LHC offline for extended periods; however the controllers expect it to be up and running again today.

[via Slashdot]