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From BBC News | Technology | World Edition:
The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be out of action until spring 2009 while engineers probe a magnet failure.
The incident on 19 September caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak out into the experiment's 27km-long tunnel.
Officials said the time required to fully investigate the problem precluded a re-start before the lab's winter maintenance period.
The collider is built to smash protons together at huge speeds, recreating conditions moments after the Big Bang.
Scientists hope it will shed light on fundamental questions in physics.
"Coming immediately after the very successful start of LHC operation on 10 September, this is undoubtedly a psychological blow," said Robert Aymar, director-general of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), in a statement.
But he praised the skill and preparation of the teams involved in building the particle accelerator.
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Re: Collider halted until next year
