A 14 month programme to dismantle CERN’s Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP) reached its conclusion in February, when the last LEP half-dipole was removed from the collider tunnel. Some 30,000 tonnes of material have been brought back to the surface, clearing the way for the installation of CERN’s next major facility, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Many components have been given to other scientific institutes around the world, where they will be put to use in future research programmes. Quadrupoles, for example, were sent to the US, while current generators have gone to South Korea. Other items have been kept for possible future use at CERN and some have been donated to museums.
The tunnel will not be empty for long. Surveyors are already working on tracing out the positions of LHC components, and the installation of utilities has begun.
