Supermagnet eats itself

[Dr Mordrid]

Article....

Sounds like the Large Hadron Collider will be a bit late coming online.

Oops! Giant Particle Collider Magnet Self-Destructs

GENEVA (AP)—A 43-foot-long magnet for the world's largest particle collider broke "with a loud bang and a cloud of dust'' during a high-pressure test, and officials said Tuesday they are working to find a replacement part.

Yep; just run right down to Marvins Magnet Mart & pick one up

The part that failed March 27 was in a super-cooled magnet designed to focus streams of protons so that they collide and allow scientists to study the results of the collision, giving them a better understanding of the makeup of matter, according to Fermilab, based in suburban Chicago, which has an accelerator of its own and is helping build one deep beneath the Swiss and French countryside outside Geneva.

Fermilab, which built the magnet for the 17-mile circular collider, said its teams, working with colleagues from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have determined what caused the "serious failure'' and are working on a solution.
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[Nowhere]

Official statement from Fermilab, not some watered down science site:

http://user.web.cern.ch/user/QuickLinks/Announcements/2007/LHCInnerTriplet.html

...
While the full cause of the problem is not yet known, failure to account for the asymmetric loads in the engineering design of the magnet appears to be a likely cause. The test configuration corresponds to conditions that occur during a magnet quench, when a superconducting magnet suddenly "goes normal," releasing large amounts of energy. They may also occur during magnet cooldown and during certain other conditions such as refrigerator failure. From 1998 to 2002, Fermilab conducted four engineering reviews of the magnets by experts from Fermilab, other US national laboratories and CERN. The reviews do not appear to have addressed these asymmetric loads. Tests at Fermilab were done on single magnets where such loads do not develop.