Large Hadron Collider experiment delayed due to helium leak...

Img: LHC superconducting magnets. Credit LHC-2/flickr

A helium leak, which has disabled the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment on the French/Swiss border, is likely to take two months to repair.

European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists said in statement released on the weekend that they had detected a helium leak on Friday which they believed was most likely caused by a faulty electrical connection between two magnets.

The connection had "...melted at high current leading to mechanical failure" said the statement, though CERN insisted that at no time was there any danger to people.

The organisation said they thought the problem should be fixed in a few days once accessible, though added the sector where the problem occurred will have to be warmed up above its operational absolute zero in order for repairs to be carried out.

"A number of magnets raised their temperature by around 100 degrees," said James Gillies, spokesman for CERN. "We have now to warm up the whole sector in a controlled manner before we can actually go in and repair it."

The $10 million atom smasher would then need to cooled back to absolute zero to re-start operations.

The world's largest, and most expensive, atom-smashing experiment, will attempt to recreate the conditions experienced in the Universe just one trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Physicists are hopeful the LHC experiment will go some way to answering many questions including uncovering evidence of the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle", the theoretical particle which would explain how matter gets its mass.

CERN are expecting a "minimum" down time of two months.