Yesterday evening at 18:03, the LHC ended its first full period of operation in style. Collisions at 2.36 TeV recorded since last weekend have set a new world record and brought to a close a successful first run. The LHC has now been put into standby mode, and will restart in February 2010 following a short technical stop to prepare for higher energy collisions and the start of the main research programme.
A technical stop is needed to prepare the LHC for higher energy running in 2010. Before the 2009 running period began, all the necessary preparations to run up to a collision energy of 2.36 TeV had been carried out. To run at higher energy requires higher electrical currents in the LHC magnet circuits. This places more exacting demands on the new machine protection systems, which need to be readied for the task. Commissioning work for higher energies will be carried out in January, along with necessary adaptations to the hardware and software of the protection systems that have come to light during the 2009 run.
The success of the 2009 run is down to the skill and dedication of every one of you. Congratulations and thanks to you all.
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