Is that a likely situation? No matter; Popular Science has the answers
Posted 08.01.2008 at 12:09 pm
12 Comments
When functioning properly, radiation levels in the LHC's tunnel will be equivalent to a CT scan
CERN
Well, it's never a great idea to stand next to a machine that could create black holes, but the magnets that steer the proton beams around the planet's most powerful particle accelerator would probably spare you from excess radiation. Then again, there is the off chance that some 300 trillion protons could erupt from the device and kill you on the spot.
Even though the LHC's twin beams will travel in protective isolation through 17-mile-long, two-inch-wide pipes sucked to a near-perfect vacuum, some of those protons—potentially billions—will inevitably wander off the track. When they do, they will slam into the magnets that steer and focus the beam, or hit other hardware, gas molecules or protons. These collisions will generate a mess of secondary radioactive particles, explains Mike Lamont, an LHC machine coordinator, filling the tunnel with a field of radiation roughly equivalent to that of a full-body CT scan. That's not a dangerous amount of radiation to be exposed to for a few minutes, but longer than that, and you might suffer some cellular damage. (It's important to note, though, that the security measures in place at the LHC make it virtually impossible to sneak into the tunnel when the beam is on.)
If engineers were to lose control of the beam, however, watch out. The beam is only one millimeter wide, yet it contains 320 trillion protons moving just shy of the speed of light. (That gives it about the same momentum as a 400-ton train speeding at 95 mph.) It would plow through the magnets and unleash a fatal cascade of high-energy particles and radiation.
And that's just if you were near a runaway beam. If you stood in its way, it would burn a hole right into you, Lamont says. "A human body wouldn't stand a chance."
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Keep up the excellent work! Many still are not aware of the CERN LHC project!
http://thefifthknight.blogspot.com/
Remember: Follow the 'White Rabbit'!
What doesn't kill you makes you...into a...superhero....
www.thekeyhoereport.com/home
"Well, it's never a great idea to stand next to a machine that could create black holes"
Lies. That is all.
If you can control that proton emission to form a 3 foot blade, you get lightsabers!
COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
I trust Professor Rossler's "Seven Reasons for Demanding an LHC Safety Conference". I hope that the Swiss government acts on Dr. Rossler's concerns after he meets with the Swiss president this month (August).
I suspect most physicists would have significantly greater levels of concern if they studied the safety issues in detail rather than trust arguments almost exclusively from CERN employee or board physicists with significant vested interests in conveying the perception of safety.
I am also concerned that pro-LHC editors including a CERN employee prevent inclusion of peer reviewed papers that question Hawking Radiation as an open question or argue that black holes do not radiate. If micro black holes are created by this collider Earth may be given an incurable case of micro black hole cancer. Going forward based on disputed and unverified safety arguments is reckless beyond comprehension when scientists as credible, eminent and prestigious as Dr. Otto E. Rossler are warning of probable catastrophe if micro black holes are created.
JTankers,
Subscriber, software developer and founder of LHCFacts.org
from Windsor, CA
dont stand next to a machine that creates a black hole.
nope, didnt know that
RNDMZR
It's a good thing that there isn't a government funded field of physics called "collider safety", involving lots of researchers running lots of codes on lots of supercomputers all looking for dangerous scenareos associated with black hole creation. The researchers predicting immediate doom from rouge black holes would, of course, tend to increase the funding while those who predict the null result would likely have to find another field within a few years.
I think it's a solid prediction that you'd never be able to build or turn on one of these things until you built it in another star system.
Don't forget the case of Anatoli Bugorski, the Russian physicist whose head was in the path of a particle beam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski
i'm sure those particle beams might cause mutations that will probably make you into the incredible hulk, or hancock, or maybe even bill clinton
well then why didnt we just get a 400-ton train speeding at 95 mph to collide particles?
j/k nvm
well then why didnt we just get a 400-ton train speeding at 95 mph to speed around the tunnel?
j/k nvm
@JTankers: Surley your not falling in with the alarmists?