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4-year-long spring cleanup: the LHC needs to get rid of thousands of useless cables.

Accepted submission by bob_super at 2016-01-28 00:00:54
Science

bob_super [soylentnews.org] writes:

Check the server room, or the back of your desk. How many cables are still there, which are not actually used? I just moved my desk, the answer was only three. The LHC [wikipedia.org], on the other hand, has to figure out how to identify and remove over 9000 [vice.com] obsolete cables, a process that will take four years to avoid disrupting the machine's regular operation.

CERN had a “not-so-good habit” of simply leaving old cables in situ when they were replaced, and piling the new ones up top. Now, removing the old ones is not as straightforward as you might think. Each cable in the PS Booster, for instance, is about 50 metres long, travelling from the surface buildings at CERN’s Geneva base down underground to the injector. “That’s why we started to identify and disconnect this year and next year we will remove them,”

Why bother? Because 2019 will bring a major upgrade [espace.cern.ch].

“Today, all the cable containments—the cable trays that are housing all these cables—are really crowded, and it’s no longer possible to add new cables.”

See that rats' nest in the corner? Scientists recommend you stop procrastinating and pick it up now.

Original Submission