The giant new particle collider at Europe’s centre for nuclear...

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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4692222.ece