The giant new particle collider at Europe’s centre for nuclear research (Large Hadron Collider ), which is due to start work on Wednesday, is being linked to spectacular spin-offs including improved cancer treatments, systems for destroying nuclear waste and insights into climate change.
Another project has suggested a potentially radical new way of dealing with nuclear waste. Cern’s physicists found that firing a beam of protons (a type of sub-atomic particle) into blocks of lead could generate a shower of neutrons (another sub-atomic particle) – and that these could then be used to break down radioactive waste into harmless stable elements.
A Cern spokesman said the technique was being studied by industry. “This technology sprung from insights into matter generated by pure physics,” he said.