CERN completes transition to lead-ion running at the LHC

CERN completes transition to lead-ion running at the LHC. Geneva, 8 November 2010. Four days is all it took for the LHC operations team at CERN 1 to complete the transition from protons to lead ions in the LHC. After extracting the final proton beam of 2010 on 4 November, commissioning the lead-ion beam was underway by early afternoon. First collisions were recorded at 00:30 CET on 7 November, and stable running conditions marked the start of physics with heavy ions at 11:20 CET today. "The speed of the transition to lead ions is a sign of the maturity of the LHC," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. "The machine is running like clockwork after just a few months of routine operation." Operating the LHC with lead ions - lead atoms stripped of electrons - is completely different from operating the machine with protons.
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